4 major Latino organizations joining forces to mobilize voters for midterms

Four of the nation\u0027s largest Latino civic organizations are joining forces for the first time ahead of the 2026 midterms, CBS News has learned, combining their voter outreach operations under a single strategy to reach a crucial voting group that has shifted dramatically in recent years.\u00a0The coalition \u2014 which includes UnidosUS, the LULAC Institute, Mi Familia en Acci\u00f3n and Latino Victory Foundation \u2014 is aiming to connect with more than 5 million Latino voters, register 250,000 new voters and lift Latino voter turnout at least 5% by 2028. Organizers call it the largest coordinated, nonpartisan Latino voter engagement campaign in recent history."Our national organizations have always been aligned in working towards civic engagement, but we\u0027ve never come together and formally partnered ... raising these resources together and making sure that we\u0027re getting those results together. And that\u0027s what makes this unprecedented," Janet Murgu\u00eda, president and CEO of UnidosUS, told CBS News on Thursday.Murgu\u00eda said the investments will go toward canvassing, phone banking and digital engagements.The launch reflects the growing weight of the Latino vote at a moment when control of Congress could again hinge on razor-thin margins. More than 36 million Latinos are now eligible to vote \u2014 the nation\u0027s second-largest voting bloc and its fastest-growing electorate.\u00a0The coalition\u0027s biggest investments will go to battleground and fast-growing states: Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico and California, which will have some of the most competitive House and Senate races in the country.Republicans, meanwhile, are working to defend the gains they made with Latino voters in 2024, when President Trump won 48% of the Latino vote nationally \u2014 up 12 points from 2020. The president made even larger inroads in regions of the country with some of this year\u0027s most hotly contested House and Senate races, like Texas\u0027 Rio Grande Valley.LIBRE Action, part of the center-right Koch network, has already begun campaigning for GOP Senate candidates in Ohio and North Carolina and gubernatorial candidates in Florida and Wisconsin.\u00a0But there are signs that support is softening. Recent polls show most Latinos disapprove of the administration\u0027s handling of the cost-of-living issues and immigration enforcement. One in four Latinos who voted for Mr. Trump in 2024 would not vote for him again, UnidosUS found in a May poll. In Texas, where the president won a majority of Latino voters in 2024, polling and primary results have left Democrats optimistic that they could reclaim much of the ground they lost this year.Some 48% of Latino voters want to see Democrats control Congress next year, compared to 34% who want Republicans to control Congress and 10% who say it doesn\u0027t matter either way, according to a CBS News poll released Thursday. Still, Democrats have led among Latino voters by larger margins in the past, winning\u00a060% of the group in the 2022 House races and 69% in 2018.House Republicans \u2014 including Conference Chair Lisa McClain of Michigan, who toured South Florida promoting the GOP\u0027s economic agenda to Hispanic communities \u2014 are pushing back against the idea that Latino voters are a single-issue bloc focused primarily on immigration. They argue the GOP has stronger economic policies that will help Latino small businesses.\u00a0Murgu\u00eda also acknowledged Latinos aren\u0027t focused on just one issue, but instead "access to healthcare, to housing, affordable pricing. You know, dealing with the economy and inflation, jobs. Those are the issues that our community cares about. Most recently, the extreme immigration enforcement actions that have drawn concern, but it\u0027s the combination of kitchen table issues that draw our community as voters to the elections."The organizations are announcing their plans Thursday at the UnidosUS annual conference in Austin, Texas, where Hispanic leaders and voters have convened ahead of the midterm elections."I think today Latinos, we still have a lot of work to be done and we need to reach out to the Latinos very deeply," Tania Chavez Camacho, a Texas voter from the Rio Grande Valley, told CBS News at the UnidosUS conference. "Many of them are disengaged. Many of them do not find a political home in either the Democrats or the Republicans. And so, engaging in true conversation and sitting down with community is what\u0027s really going to turn them out."

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