Wealthy Democratic Donors to Raise $15M for Campaign Targeting Latino Voters
A group of wealthy Democratic donors are planning to invest as much as $15 million in a campaign aimed at mobilizing Latino voters to the polls in the upcoming general election.
Led by billionaire businessman George Soros, the group is hoping to unite Latino voters to combat the feisty anti-immigration language hurled at them by Republican front-runner Donald Trump and other GOP candidates.
Investment Is Largest Latino Turnout Campaign
Strategists involved in the campaign insisted the targeted investment will represent the largest Democratic voter turnout effort ever devoted solely to Latino and immigrant voters. Most of the money has already been earmarked for regions with large Latino and Asian populations such as Colorado, Florida and Nevada.
The outreach will be done under the umbrella of a new super PAC called the Immigrant Voters Win PAC. Much of the campaign will be directly aimed at persuading immigrant swing voters to support Democratic candidates. Ultimately, organizers hope to get at least 400,000 new Democratic voters to the polls in November.
"This is really taking the gloves off," said Cristóbal Alex, the president of the Latino Victory Project, one of several pro-immigration groups working in conjunction with the new super PAC.
"From the first day he attacked us, he called us rapists and thieves," he said of Trump. "We could have a giant wall built and millions of families broken apart. The country is on the precipice."
The effort is also meant to close the gap in enthusiasm between Democrats and GOP supporters. Some Democratic party members worry the GOP has pulled ahead in terms of motivation early on in this election cycle. Part of the malaise among Latino voters has been attributed to ongoing deportation raids orchestrated by the Obama administration that have thus far contributed to the deportations of more than two million people.
Meanwhile, thousands of working-class white voters have aligned behind Trump in his call to build a massive wall along the Mexican border to keep out immigrants and his pledge to deport up to 11 million immigrants.
Soros Committed to Investing $5 Million
Reportedly, Soros is on tap to invest a cool $5 million on the mobilization effort. He has also committed another $5 million to a Democratic-led legal campaign to contest restrictive voting laws in several states across the country.
"The intense anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric that has been fueled by the Republican primary is deeply offensive," he told The New York Times. "It is harmful to our democracy and to our national interests. There should be consequences for the outrageous statements and proposals that we've regularly heard."
Organizers added they hope to begin knocking on doors over the next several weeks. The group plans to reach at least 728,000 Latino and Asian voters across critical states.
The campaign's timing will allow organizers the chance to weigh in on the Supreme Court's upcoming ruling on the Obama administration's 2014 executive action that stands to protect an estimated 5 million immigrants from deportation.
Republican Majority Leader Paul Ryan recently revealed the GOP also hopes to be heard by the court on the matter. Party leaders are expected to voice their stern opposition to the president's plan.
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