Democrats plan to aim flurry of anti-Trump political ads at Hispanic voters in Florida
While warning that too many Democratic organizations are ignoring Florida, the chairman of Priorities USA announced Wednesday that the country’s largest Democratic Super PAC is launching an ad campaign one year ahead of the 2020 elections to woo Hispanics in the nation’s most populous swing state.
Ads promoting news articles that reflect how President Donald Trump’s policies harm Hispanic families will begin running this week in Florida on Facebook, Google and YouTube, according to Priorities USA. Ads featuring first-person testimonials from Hispanic families are also in the works.
The new campaign was announced Wednesday by Priorities USA Chairman Guy Cecil during a gathering and conference call with reporters. Cecil held the summit to discuss the organization’s plans for the coming year as it ramps up efforts in the key battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida.
“This election is incredibly close,” Cecil said.
The digital push by Democrats comes amid aggressive efforts by President Donald Trump to improve his margins with Hispanic voters in Florida and around the country.
Trump lost badly with Hispanics in the 2016 elections while running a campaign that relied on hard-line immigration messaging. In June, the president’s reelection campaign launched its Latinos for Trump outreach effort in Florida, a state where Hispanic voters comprise about 16.5 percent of the registered electorate in a state he likely must win again to earn a second term. He tapped Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, a Cuban-American former lawmaker from Miami, to help lead the effort.
“Come 2020, Hispanic-Americans will not be enamored by the false narrative of political machines like Priorities USA,” Nuñez said in a statement touting record low Hispanic unemployment numbers under Trump and the president’s aggressive stance against dictatorships in Latin America. “They will be fueled by a renewed sense of prosperity thanks to a president who is delivering for all Americans.”
Trump has also made regular campaign appearances in Florida, where he now claims full-time residency.
Democrats running for president, however, have spent little time in the state — and most of their appearances have been reserved for private fundraisers. That has left the state and national Democratic parties and a network of left-leaning nonprofits to do most of the work registering and motivating voters, a trend likely to continue until a Democratic nominee is chosen in July.
“Too many Democratic organizations are leaving Florida off their map,” Cecil said. “To not focus on Florida is a terrible strategic mistake.”
Cecil did not say how much Priorities USA will spend on the campaign.
Daniela Martins, the Super PAC’s director of national Hispanic media and Florida outreach, said the new bilingual ad campaign in Florida and Arizona is part of a commitment by the organization to spend $100 million through the summer in an effort to keep Trump from winning a second term.
“The idea of this program is to shine a light on how Trump and this White House’s reckless policies are affecting Latinos,” Martins told the Miami Herald. “Our team is already on the ground collecting stories. We want people to hear from people who look and sound like them.”
The Super PAC’s new media campaign comes on the heels of a six-week, $4 million campaign carried out by the group this fall in dozens of municipal elections in battleground states, including Florida. Ads ran in nearly three dozen Florida cities, including Miami, Miami Beach and Hialeah, in an effort to increase turnout among unlikely voters, young people and African Americans in particular.
Cecil said Wednesday that the ads showed promise, with turnout increasing by 16 percent among voters in Florida’s six largest cities when compared to results from the 2015 municipal elections. And he said that’s important, because Democrats need to give normally uninvolved voters reasons to cast their ballots next November if they want to beat Trump.
“Democrats who believe the only path to winning is by convincing white working class voters to vote for us are wrong,” Cecil said.
This article has been updated to correct information regarding the planned spending by Priorities USA, and to clarify that ads featuring news articles will run this week. Ads featuring first-person testimonials are in the works.
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 4:03 PM.
