The Latino Vote Could Decide the Election. Kamala Harris Knows It.

By the turn of the year, it was getting harder and harder to deny the Biden campaign had a Latino problem. A softball Univision interview with Donald Trump in the fall appeared to reset the former president’s stormy relations with the Spanish-language cable giant. Respected polls showed Trump actually winning the Latino vote — a dramatic departure from his roughly 30-point loss in 2020. A survey from one of the oldest Hispanic civil rights groups, UnidosUS, showed Latinos’ number one concern remained the economy and inflation.

So Kamala Harris called a high-level meeting on February 24 at her residence, the Naval Observatory, for a multi-hour polling and communications briefing on the Biden campaign’s Latino engagement. As the group of top Biden campaign and Harris aides passed around a tray of cookies and brownies, Harris got down to business. She was “very concerned” about the Latino vote and the state of Spanish-language media in the race, an attendee said. She wanted to know how she could be of more help to the campaign with Latinos.