Joe Biden vowed in 2020 to work like the devil to energize

Hispanic Latino

voters, and flew to Florida seven weeks before Election Day to do just that. But when he took the stage at a Hispanic Heritage Month event near Disney World, Biden declared, “I only have one thing to say,” and used his phone to play a part in Despacito.

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It was intended as a tribute to the singer of the reggaeton hit, Luis Fonsi, who had introduced Biden. Still, the gesture sparked online backlash from some

Hispanic Latinos

who saw it as an attempt to disparage stereotypes prove that while outreach is important, not striking the right tone can undermine it.

The details really matter to people because it respects their background, respects their history, respects their culture, said Grecia Lima, national political director for the progressive action group Community Change Action.

President Biden is not the first politician to strike a sour note by crossing cultural boundaries. But the backlash he’s faced illustrates a bigger challenge he faces as he seeks a second term.

Hispanic Latino

voters, long a core constituency for Democrats, have reliably supported them based on substantive policy issues, from

healthcare healthcare

according to studies from the Pew Research Center. But recent signs that Republicans have made their way with those voters reinforce the sense that Democrats must work to maintain their advantage.

According to AP VoteCast, a survey of the national electorate.

Meanwhile, 39% of Hispanic voters supported Republicans last year, up from the 35% who supported the former president

Donald

Trump’s re-election bid.

Joe Biden visits the Florida battlefield to bolster support among Latinos and veterans

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a Republican considering a White House membership, said Democrats hurt themselves by adopting terms like Latinx, a gender-neutral alternative to Latino and Latina.

They have created a great opportunity for the Republicans, Suarez said.

Democrats believed harsh rhetoric from Republicans during and after Trump’s presidency, who declared immigrants from Mexico rapists and criminals in his 2015 campaign launch, would boost them. Instead, even modest swings toward the GOP could mean millions of additional Republican votes next year. Hispanics accounted for 62% of the country’s total growth in eligible voters between 2018 and last year’s election, according to Pew.

Are they behind? asked Javier Palomarez, CEO of the United States Hispanic Business Council. Yes

Democratic strategist Maria Cardona said nearly every cycle features activists with their hair on fire: the campaigns weren’t doing enough, they weren’t hearing enough people. She said Biden’s campaign is neutralizing those perceptions with historic moves and investments in

Hispanic Latino

mobilization of voters.

Biden supporters also say substantive issues, rather than incidents like Despacito playing, resonate

Hispanic Latino

voters.

During his first two years in office, President Biden has focused on the issues facing many Latino families: reducing health care costs, creating high-paying jobs, reopening our small businesses and schools, and combating gun violence in our communities, Kevin Munoz, a spokesman for Biden’s re-election campaign, said in a statement.

Still, Despacito wasn’t the Biden camp’s only misstep.

First Lady Jill Biden stumbled upon uttering the rallying cry S Se Puede during a speech in California last spring. Then, last summer in Texas, she said the

Hispanic Latino

community was as unique as breakfast tacos here in San Antonio,” sparking another backlash and an apology from the first lady’s office.

Latinos don’t see themselves fully reflected in Biden’s judicial choices

Matt Barreto, who does polls for the White House and Democratic National Committee, said

Hispanic Latino

outreach programs have been intensified.

We have learned our lessons and are constantly improving, he said.

Democrats have been hampered in 2020 by limiting the pandemic on the ground. But those efforts resumed in 2022, when Democrats still lost key House races in some cases

Hispanic Latino

areas.

The shift to Republicans was particularly pronounced in Florida, where more than half of the

Hispanic Latino

voter-backed Republican government. Ron DeSantis, now running for president.

In Florida’s Broward County, still a Democratic stronghold, Richard Ramunno, a 31-year-old entrepreneur of Argentine and Chilean background, recalled Biden’s Despacito episode but laughed it off. He said he is more concerned about the policy decisions Republicans make on the state level, including the Parental Rights in Education Act signed by DeSantis, making it easier to challenge a book because of its content.

The laws they pass are very conservative at the moment, he said. Books are being removed from schools.

Melissa Morales, founder of Somos PAC, who won Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, the first Latina elected to the Senate, said the midterm elections showed the importance of economic policies like affordable housing and health care, not GOP-led culture war issues.

What really stood out to us in 2022 was that Latinos were so solution-oriented, Morales said.

Lima, of Community Change Action, said the economy is a major driver for Latino voters, and Biden could point to a large public works package and increased federal spending on health care, social services and green energy.

But she mentioned those down payments and said Latino voters will expect Democrats to make good on policies that help the economy work better for them.

Biden rushes to bolster Latino support. It is too late?

Many activists who have criticized Biden and the Democrats praised the president for choosing Julie Chavez Rodriguez, granddaughter of civil rights icon Julio Cesar Chavez, to lead his re-election campaign.

In a memo detailing the 2024 strategy, which the Biden campaign produced in English and Spanish, Rodriguez pledged to engage with Latino voters early and often. The DNC also plans to build on Adelante, or Forward, a seven-figure outreach plan that provided bilingual radio and print in nine battleground states last year.

The DNC also plans to resume boot camps to train bilingual campaign personnel in key states.

“I believe the Democratic Party is now in a position where I have willing partners if I’m going to tell people I want you to do more,” Barreto said.

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Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report from Washington.