Even after Joe Biden became the president elected in November 2020, Democrats knew they would face a challenging issue. Although Donald Trump was defeated, polls have shown that Hispanic support for him increased in 2020, particularly — but not just — in South Florida and South Texas.

Just two weeks after Biden’s victory, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called a secret meeting via the Zoom platform with top Latino agents from across the country aimed to identify the reasons that thwarted Democratic expectations in 2020 election tactics and ensure that no new mistakes happen again in 2022, according to meeting participants who spoke to Newsweek.

According to Newsweek, the meeting included former Bernie Sanders senior advisor Chuck Rocha; Jose Parra, former senior advisor to the late Nevada Senator Harry Reid; Barack Obama's former Hispanic vote pollster Fernand Amandi; Alicia Sisneros, a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) consultant who runs a direct mail and field strategy firm; James Aldrete, an Obama and Hillary Clinton campaign veteran specializing in Hispanic media strategy; Cristina Antelo, a lobbyist with close ties to Latino groups and Hispanic elected officials, and others.

“At the meeting, Lynch said he had spent many cycles too focused on making sure the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) was recruiting the right candidates and not enough on how it was reaching out to voters […]. The idea that Latino voters could be further persuaded to support Republican candidates and policies was of particular concern to Democrats after the presidential election, as Biden faced multiple crises […] and history showed the 2022 midterm cycle could lead [to] a possible red wave this November”.

Already anticipating the challenges of the upcoming elections, the DSCC early began developing data analytics programs to ensure Democrats engage with Latino voters sooner, more effectively and culturally, according to the publication.

The DCCC reported to Newsweek that it launched an initial seven-figure investment in organizing programs last year that particularly focus on building strong relationships with Latino communities. The programs include “on-the-ground constituency organizing directors in areas such as the Rio Grande Valley, Miami-Dade, Las Vegas and the Central Valley, Staten Island and Allentown, which have hosted more than 20 events with a focus on Spanish speakers. The committee also touted a $30 million ‘Building Our Base’ project last fall, which includes a digital Spanish-language hub that offers events for people to join”, in addition to involving important groups such as the Latino outreach phone banking in Nevada for Representative Dina Titus, and virtual phone banking with Representative Matt Cartwright in Pennsylvania.

The DCCC says the biggest takeaway from this research is that Latinos are “flooded” by misinformation, which helped Republicans in regions of the country such as South Florida.

The objective of Republican candidates and parties has been, for a long time, to take Latino support from the Democrats and, for that, they have been improving their electoral tactics. Note that the Senate Republican National Committee (NRSC) launched “Operación ¡Vamos!”, “a seven-figure investment in target states, a coordinated effort with the Republican National Committee and nine state parties to share the agenda and GOP messages with Latino communities”, according to Newsweek.

The party highlights victories after 2020, such as Cuban-American Jason Miyares as Virginia's first Latino attorney general, and Texas Republican John Lujan pitched to the 118th House District, where Biden won by 14 points and is 73% Hispanic. In March, Lujan spearheaded the opening of the community hub in San Antonio.

The NRCC hopes to maintain Republican victories with 101 Hispanic candidates registered to run as Republicans in the House of Representatives, the most in Republican history.

In order to do so, the group, who now focuses on reaching out to blacks and Latinos over the year, organized a project targeting Latinos named “Voto Latino” and another project focused on the African-American community with “Color of Change”, among other programs.