Colorado Republicans work to woo Latino voters, using successful Texas strategy
If Cliff Aragon’s take on politics reflects what other Latinos in Colorado are thinking as the mid-term election looms just over four months away, it could be an early and unwelcome warning sign for Democrats.
“He’s doing a horrible job,” the unaffiliated voter in Adams County’s Sherrelwood neighborhood, just south of West 84th Avenue, said of President Joe Biden.
Aragon was on a list of homes being targeted Tuesday evening by a team of GOP volunteers, wearing matching red T-shirts, who believe that face-to-face engagement with a segment of the population historically aligned with Democrats is a crucial campaign strategy.
“You’re seeing a lot of heavily dissatisfied Hispanic voters,” said Helder Toste, field and coalition director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, as he rounded up a small group of volunteers behind a Dutch Bros coffee shop near Interstate 25. “They’re worried about crime and kitchen table issues.”
The conversations in Adams County on Tuesday centered on a concern that is universal these days: inflation, especially the price at the pump. Biden, said Damon Rodriguez, who has lived on Louise Drive for the last 2 1/2 years, “could be doing better.”
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“We’ve gotten a lot better at saying, ‘We need to elevate minority voices,’” said Toste, who broke out into fluent Spanish at several homes where there were no English speakers, handing out a flyer and urging residents to vote.
Operación Vamos
The National Republican Senatorial Committee picked Colorado as one of a handful of states for what it dubbed Operación Vamos — an effort to make deeper inroads with Hispanic residents styled after success the party saw in Texas.
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“Reaching out to those Hispanic voters early in the cycle, not just when we’re asking for their vote, but when we can actually have real conversations about issues and what matters to them has really been effective across the nation,” Colorado GOP Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown said.
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They aim to meet those voters in their communities, versus expecting them to come to the party, and hear the issues dearest to them — with a dose of highlighting what Burton Brown describes as “radical” policies pushed by Democrats, from Biden to Sen. Michael Bennet. While Operación Vamos is nominally about the U.S. Senate, officials hope the effort will bear fruit down the ballot.
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In what could be a tight election year, particularly with new congressional districts, swinging just a few percentage points worth of voters could tilt the state’s representation in the state Capitol and Washington, D.C. And given the economic climate, and the country’s history of backlash against the president’s party in midterm elections, Republicans are hoping to open as many doors to their party — literally and metaphorically — as they can.
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The outreach described by the Republican Party, in his experience, is the best way to reach Latino voters. A tough pill for the avowed Democrat, who fears his own party is missing the boat this election cycle.
“It’s scary,” Subia said. “I’m waiting for Democrats to get around and out front of the issues. I’m worried by the time they do, it will be too late.”
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“Get Latinos to the polls”
Metropolitan State University of Denver political science professor Robert Preuhs estimates that just a 10% swing among Latinos would lead to a win for Republicans. He called Operación Vamos “a proactive reaction to some long-standing critiques of the Republican Party over a lack of Latino outreach and messaging.”
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“It’s what campaigns need to do to gain Latino support,” Preuhs, who has specifically studied Latino political engagement, said. “That is the grassroots organizing, door-to-door knocking, Spanish language, community-sensitive messaging. Regardless if it’s Democrats or Republicans, that’s what seems to get Latinos to the polls.”
This is also a potentially key moment to reach that population, Preuhs said. Inflation and gas prices are emptying wallets, and it doesn’t feel like Democrats in power have made much headway on immigration policy, he said. In a summer 2021 survey of Latino Coloradans, immigration, jobs and the economy were the top issues, with discrimination and racial justice following soon after.
“The bottom line in this election for Latinos, and everybody else, is going to be their bottom line,” Preuhs said.
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