Washington, D.C. – This week, the NRSC and 9 GOP State Parties announced “Operación ¡Vamos!”, a seven-figure investment in Hispanic field and communications programming that will enable the NRSC, RNC and state parties to share the Republican message with voters in key battleground states for the midterm election.
Operación ¡Vamos! will focus on sharing the GOP’s opportunity agenda for hardworking families and help Republicans take back the majority this November.
GOP Senate campaign push focuses on Latinos with “Vamos” initiative as Title 42 impacts midterms
Republicans are betting Latino voters will play a key role in their efforts to retake the Senate in November, and to that end, their Senate campaign arm announced a new multi-million-dollar outreach plan encompassing border policy, the economy and education.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s (NRSC) new “Vamos” initiative, first shared with CBS News, will target 2022 races in the battlegrounds of Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin. Latino voters make up at least 20% of the electorate in Arizona, Nevada and Florida.
“Vamos” will focus on field operations such as door knocking, canvassing and other targeted programming. And about 20 NRSC staffers will be deployed to these nine battleground states.
Florida Senator Rick Scott and NRSC chairman, told CBS News he anticipates Republicans will see better Latino turnout this year than in past midterm elections. He argues that the current political environment favors Republicans and that the economy and immigration are issues that have moved voters away from Democrats. Scott, the former governor of Florida, won 45% of the Latino vote in 2018, unseating the Democratic incumbent, Bill Nelson.
“The most important thing to me that Republicans need to do is get out and talk to Hispanics across the country and listen to them,” Scott said. “And don’t do it in the last four weeks of a race, but do it your entire race. And you’ll hear what they care about.”
The NRSC will be working in tandem with the Republican National Committee, which is also heavily courting Latino voters, and has invested millions into targeting Republican-leaning Latino voters and organizing eight community centers in predominantly Latino areas, with four in Texas and others in Milwaukee, Las Vegas, Allentown, Pennsylvania; and Doral, Florida, which is located in the predominantly Latino Miami-Dade County.
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In a February CBS News poll, 60% of Latino respondents said they didn’t believe Democrats and the Biden administration were focused enough on either immigration or inflation.
In Arizona, Republican officials say their messaging will focus on the southern border, where an unprecedented number of migrants have arrived in the past year, posing major humanitarian, logistical and political challenges.
“I think most Republicans and I think most Hispanics would agree that we have to have a secure border, and we have to enforce our immigration laws,” Scott said.
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Scott claimed Kelly has “put no effort in securing the border” and thinks it may hurt him in November.
“His problem is he’s done nothing, and Biden’s done nothing that’s good for most people, not just Hispanics, but most people in Arizona,” he told CBS News. “Inflation, not being energy-independent, all this stuff. The issue is he ran as a moderate and he votes with Bernie Sanders.”
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Scott’s sense is that the same issues that resonate with any group will be winning issues for Latino voters — like inflation, energy and education.
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