No more “Latinos support Trump.” Now it's “Latinos support Trump.”
The Trump campaign renamed its Latino outreach initiative to emphasize U.S. citizenship, a shift that is particularly striking given that the campaign continues to make inroads among Hispanic voters even as former President Donald J. Trump has escalated the dehumanizing rhetoric about immigrants that was central to his campaign.
“It's really important that we all understand that no matter where we come from, we are already Americans,” said Jaime Flores, Hispanic communications director for the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign. “African-American, Latino, Asian American, European American, wherever we come from, we are all Americans.”
“Latino” is a term used primarily in the United States to refer to people whose family origins are from Latin America. In its broadest definition, people can trace their roots to Spanish settlers in New Mexico, third- and fourth-generation Salvadoran Americans, and recent immigrants from Venezuela. Latinos are generally thought of as an ethnic group and include people who appear white, black, indigenous, or Asian. Opinion polls have repeatedly shown that many Latinos prefer to identify with their country of origin.
Emphasizing American identity alongside Latino identity is unlikely to deter potential Trump voters. Of course, only American citizens can legally vote in federal elections. (Trump and his supporters have repeatedly made unfounded accusations about illegal immigrants voting.)
The new name will allow the campaign to attract Latino voters who are drawn to Trump precisely because they fervently believe in his portrayal of the American Dream. Many of these voters say they support Trump because they believe they were better off economically when he was president. Many Latino voters also say they are wary of new immigrants, some of whom say they threaten the social status of Latinos already living in the U.S.
Hispanic voters are expected to make up about 15% of the electorate this year and are likely to play a central role in deciding the election's outcome. Polls have shown that Trump has seen his support among Hispanic voters grow since his 2020 defeat. Some surveys have him winning more than 40% of Hispanic voters, a level not seen by a Republican presidential candidate in the past two decades.
Ian Haney Lopez, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who has written extensively on Hispanics and worked with Democratic groups, said re-districting Trump to Latino voters was a “strategically smart move” that exploits rifts among Hispanic voters.
“This bill would build a border wall through Latino communities, making some people feel respected as Americans while others believe they don't belong in America, as misguided immigrants,” he said. “This change would set Latinos back 100 years.”
Haney Lopez pointed to advocacy groups such as the National League of American States, which began almost a century ago to combat anti-Latino prejudice and improve the status of Latinos with citizenship rights, but which also denigrate recently arrived Hispanics.
“It took decades of work, especially during the civil rights era, to build a common humanity and identity across the divide between citizen and immigrant,” he said, “but of course that divide can still be weaponized today, and that's what rebranding Latinos for Trump aims to do.”
Trump campaign spokesman Daniel Alvarez rejected Haney Lopez's criticism of the name change and said the campaign was focused on the economy and the cost of living for Americans.
“The left is pandering to minority groups and talking about procedure,” Alvarez said. “We're going to take the America First message to all Americans, including Latinos.”