22:03

Turnout among Latinos was “historic” – and a record number of Latinos are headed to Congress, according to the congressman who oversaw the Democrats’ plan to take back the House.

“Latino voters played a pivotal role in taking back the House,” DCCC chairman Ben Ray Luján said on a conference call hosted by Latino Victory Fund. He said the Latino vote was especially consequential in a handful of House races across demographically diverse Sun Belt battlegrounds of Nevada, Arizona, Florida and Texas.

Luján, whose oversaw the 2018 House battlefield and is the first Latino to serve in the role, attributed the high turnout among the Democratic base – which includes Latinos, millennials, African Americans, Asians and women – to an “unprecedented” $30m investment.

“Latinos showed up to the polls because we talked to them, we listened to them, our candidates connected with their personal stories, we knocked on their doors and we reached out to them online,” he said.

As Donald Trump roiled his base with warnings of a migrant caravan and gang violence, Dan Sena, the DCCC executive director and the first Latino to helm the committee, said the group honed in on a positive message – trying to create an environment in which Latinos had something to vote for rather than against.

“We wanted voting to feel good rather than simply what is at stake and kids in cages and Trump,” he said. “So we spent a fair amount of time really studying how to create urgency without making it feel overly heavy and overly sad.”

Sena added that the strength of the Latino vote is no longer a hypothetical.” The proof is in the pudding,” he said, that investing in communities of color is “necessary to the longterm success of the party”.

In 2018, Latinos voted overwhelmingly for Democrats by a margin of nearly 3 to 1, according to Matt Barreto, co-founder of Latino Decisions. His polling found that 73% of Latinos voted for Democratic candidates while only 23% voted for Republicans.

Barreto said Latinos identified healthcare as the most important issue followed by the divisive rhetoric around immigration.

Latino voters said they were “tired of the discussion of immigrants in such a negative and racist,” which Barreto said is how the respondents characterized the commentary from Trump and Republicans.

Cristóbal Alex, the president of Latino Victory Fund, said he was “taken aback” by how “vile and racist” the Republican attack ads were at the end of the campaign. But he believes the result of 2018 midterm elections – with Democrats reclaiming the House and winning senate seats in Arizona and Nevada – showed that this approach was unsuccessful.



“They were right in one respect: there was a caravan that showed up on election day – that showed up at voting booths across the country with Democrats turning out in historic numbers proving that their attempt failed,” he said.