Voto Latino pledges $44M to support Harris

Voto Latino on Monday is endorsing Vice President Harris in her bid for the White House, pledging its entire 2024 campaign budget to her cause.

The civic engagement group, a key player in Latino campaign politics, supported President Biden’s reelection efforts and is a fierce opponent of former President Trump.

“As far right extremists seek to demonize immigrants, shatter our democracy, and curtail our rights at every turn, Vice President Kamala Harris has led the defense of our multicultural democracy. Her long-standing support for working Americans, voting rights, DACA, and for women’s rights have done so much good for our country and the Latino community — and it has never been more important,” said María Teresa Kumar, president of Voto Latino.

Voto Latino’s campaign in 2024 is hitting the road, after a mostly-digital 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“In 2020, Voto Latino endorsed Joe Biden in the face of an unprecedented threat to our community and our country. His exceptional term has earned our admiration and respect,” Kumar said in a statement Sunday, following Biden’s announcement that he would no longer seek reelection.

“Now more than ever we must unite our efforts to make sure Trump is not elected in November. The stakes have never been higher. If Trump returns to the White House, he’ll execute his anti-democracy and extreme platform. He will continue dehumanizing immigrants and will deploy our military to round-up people who they deem look undocumented. Trump also will expand the cottage industry of detention centers across the nation where no one is safe - U.S. citizens or not,” Kumar said Sunday.

Kumar told The Hill last month that Voto Latino is on track to raise and spend $44 million, up from $36 million four years ago.

The group plans to focus on young Hispanic voters with anti-disinformation, registration and mobilization campaigns in Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Those efforts, The Hill has learned, will be geared toward electing Harris, who has a longstanding relationship with Voto Latino.

“The Vice President has been a longtime friend of Voto Latino since our inception 20 years ago. She has been a supporter, a counselor, and a proponent of equal rights for the most marginalized among us, demonstrating that she will be the President for all Americans,” said Kumar.

“We had the great privilege of going on the road with the Vice President for her campus tour conversations with young Americans about the most pressing issues facing their generation. I have witnessed firsthand how she energizes young voters – the very voters who will determine our country’s fate in November.”

Key players in the Latino political sphere lined up behind Harris soon after Biden endorsed her as his successor.

Groups like the UnidosUS Action Fund, Latino Victory Fund, Bold PAC — the Congressional Hispanic Caucus campaign arm — Nuestro PAC, Poder PAC and CASA in Action all pledged for Harris between Sunday and Monday.