As election day nears, Democrats and Republicans in Wisconsin have employed unique strategies to mobilize a key constituency: Latinos.
Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, D-Milwaukee, has been canvassing neighborhoods on Milwaukee’s south side since April. While her focus then was winning her primary, it’s now about turning out one constituency that might make all the difference: Latinos.
Ortiz-Velez is a recognizable face in her community. She’s represented the Milwaukee area for the last six years, first on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors and now as state representative for the 8th Assembly District.
Latinos make up the largest marginalized population in Wisconsin and one that has grown 7.6% in the last decade. They’ve also been reliable Democratic voters for decades.
Still, Latinos have a long and sometimes complicated relationship with the Democratic Party, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Ben Marquez.
“It becomes a race of who can mobilize your base more. Who’s better at mobilizing your Democratic Latino voter or your Republican Latino voter,” Marquez told The Daily Cardinal.
It’s why Ortiz-Velez has worked hard to meet voters where they’re at on issues that are important to them including affordable housing, health care and better wages, she told the Cardinal.
Democrats are hopeful their message will land in a handful of newly-minted swing seats in the Milwaukee area. Having advocates like Ortiz-Velez, who can deliver it in a bilingual way, is a key part of doing that. But a pair of national polls suggest Democrats may be losing their edge among Latinos in the final month of the race.
An NBC/Telemundo/CNBC poll from late September showed Harris at 54% support among Latinos, with Trump at 40%. A New York Times/Siena College poll from the first week of October showed Harris winning 56% of Latinos to Trump’s 37%.
If those numbers hold true come election day, it would be the first time a Democratic presidential candidate won less than 60% of Latino voters since John Kerry in 2004.
Republicans target Milwaukee for Latino outreach
In Wisconsin, Republicans also see an opportunity to make inroads. One of the keys to doing that is Milwaukee.
Milwaukee is a Democratic stronghold, delivering Biden more than 300,000 votes in 2020. It’s also home to the largest population of Latinos in the state. Those voters could be the difference, according to Hilario Deleon, the chair of the Milwaukee County Republican Party.
“The road to the White House literally runs through Milwaukee County,” Deleon noted.
Deleon is the first Latino to hold the position and, for the last year and half, said he’s made Latino outreach one of the “major focuses” of his party.
“I was born on the south side. I'm very familiar with a lot of these neighborhoods,” Deleon said. “People feel like they’re being left behind.”
Milwaukee’s south side has the highest concentration of Hispanic and Latino families in all of Wisconsin. Roughly 69.9% of the south side population identifies as Hispanic or Latino.
“I see the dilapidated houses, the broken streets, the homelessness, the drug epidemic that's going on, the fact that Milwaukee is a hub for human trafficking,” Deleon said. “[Hispanics] feel like the Democrat[ic] Party is starting to take their vote and voice for granted, and that's why they're starting to look towards Republicans.”
Deleon said the Republican Party is not looking to win Milwaukee outright. No Republican presidential candidate has done that in nearly 70 years. He just hopes Republicans can “lose by less” to help the GOP margins statewide.
Part of that is building what Deleon calls a “coalition of common sense” around economics, school choice, religious issues and abortion. He said if people “take a step back” from Democrats in power who are “not serving them,” they will “look at a new option.”
In 2021, the national Republican Party opened a Hispanic Outreach Center on Milwaukee’s south side. The center closed shortly after the 2022 midterm election, but the state party opened a new location this August.
In the months since, Republicans have used the new center as a staging ground for community outreach, from roundtable events to door knocking. Most recently, it hosted a block party, drawing over 100 community members.
Latinos remain dedicated to their safer option: Harris, advocates say
Other advocates say the voters they’ve talked to aren’t as easily swayed by the Republican Party and former President Donald Trump.
Luis Velasquez is a DACA recipient and has been part of Voces de la Frontera Action, the political arm of Voces de la Frontera, since 2019. He oversees VDLFA’s “Voceros por el Voto,” a relational voter program where members, called “Voceros,” build a network of voters they know, like family and friends, and encourage them to vote for progressive candidates.
Approximately 23,000 voters make up this network. Velasquez hopes to activate at least 70% of them this November and add 4,000 new ones in the process.
“We don't see [Trump] as someone who wants to offer solutions, but just sort of blame others,” Velsaquez told the Cardinal. “His comments about cats and dogs being eaten by immigrants hasn't landed right. For a lot of immigrants, that has sort of just burst out into frustration. Like, how can you even say that? It's just so racist and so wrong.”
But Velasquez admits that some Latinos have grown frustrated with Democrats’ failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform and question if the party has their interests in mind.
“There is this disenchantment that immigration reform, that has been promised every four years from Democrats, hasn’t passed, and so that really is the heart of why Trump has been getting a lot of Hispanic and Latino voters,” Velasquez said.
At the same time, Harris’ last-minute entrance into the presidential race in July has energized some in the Latino community, according to Velasquez.
“We've been very successful, especially after Biden bowed out…There’s more energy, more encouragement. People are really excited about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” Velasquez said.
But Velasquez and his team aren’t just looking for excitement, they’re looking for votes, and that fight has taken them to Green Bay.
One in five Green Bay residents identify as Hispanic, including 40% of the city’s east side, according to the 2020 census. As a mid-sized working class city, Green Bay has been fertile ground for VDLF, whose Green Bay chapter opened a new office in 2022 to accommodate growing membership.
Velasquez said there are at least 8,000 voters and 200 Voceros in their Green Bay network.
One of the key rallying points so far has been organizing around Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement (DALE), the Biden administration policy protecting immigrant workers involved in unfair labor investigations from immigration-based retaliation.
When two Green Bay employers were investigated, VDLF was part of the organizing effort to get “statement of interest” letters, granting around 200 workers access to temporary immigration protection, work permits and other benefits.
“Workers are aware that if Trump wins, DALE is at risk. Those families are at risk,” Velasquez said.
Velasquez noted that some of these workers have been in the community for over 20 years, and although they may not be able to vote themselves, they’re asking eligible voters they know to vote for candidates who will fight for “family unity.”
“As Nov. 5 has gotten closer, there is this reminder of who Trump is, the stuff that he has said — JD Vance as well — just echoing these racist remarks. There's been this fresh reminder that he's not going to change his course. On the contrary, he's doubling down. There's nothing tangible that he can offer,” Velasquez said. “We know what we get with a Democratic ticket. We get some small wins. And with the other option, we get nothing.”