For political consultants who want to win in Florida, understanding Hispanic voters in this state will be critical to their success. Experts shared their research regarding voter demographics, issue importance and candidate preference and ultimately, how to motivate this important voter bloc during AAPC’s September 27th virtual program.

Lorena Chamber’s Lessons:

1. It is important to capitalize on the energy of the Hispanic electorate. Candidates need to meet voters where they are. Focus on turning intent into action.
2. Hispanic voters in Florida are very different from Hispanic voters across the country. These voters in Florida ultimately want to elect candidates that will be a check for Donald Trump’s administration.
3. The Affordable Care Act is extremely popular with Latinos in Florida.
4. Immigration is not the number one issue for most Latino voters. Most of this voter bloc is focused on good schools, good jobs, and healthcare.
5. Do not translate ads from English to Spanish. Another important idea to consider is that even if someone is bilingual, you shouldn’t target these people in only English. Culture first, language second.

About Lorena: Lorena Chambers, CEO of Chambers Lopez Strategies LLC, is the only Latina — and one of only two women — to have ever produced broadcast commercials for a U.S. presidential campaign. She is the media strategist for PowerPAC Georgia’s work to elect Stacey Abrams the next Governor of Georgia, and for Senate Majority PAC’s efforts to win back the U.S. Senate through a repeat performance of the Latino-fueled 2016 race in Nevada that elected Senator Catherine Cortez-Masto.

Neri Martinez’s Lessons:

1. Working families want better schools for their children. The charter school idea has not worked across the board in Florida.
2. When polling voters, they think about the actual issue and how it affects them/their family without thinking of specific candidates and their political parties.
3. Advertising in Spanish pays off. Communicating with Latinos in this way makes a huge difference.
4. Talking to different audiences could mean communicating a different message to each group.
5. Being culturally competent is important when creating ads. Using someone with a specific accent is important when speaking to different Latino voter blocs. This indicates that you understand these people and want to connect with them individually.
6. Hispanics love to communicate, so mobile communication is very important to focus on during campaigns.

About Neri: Neri Ann Martinez currently Neri Martinez serves as Director of the Republican State Leadership Committee’s Future Majority Project. FMP has invested over $11 million in 3 cycles to help recruit hundreds of women and minority leaders and elect 71 diverse candidates in 31 states and 229 women candidates in 49 states. She previously served as the RNC’s Hispanic Outreach Director in North Carolina, during the 2012 presidential campaign where she was credited for significantly increasing the Hispanic vote in the state from the previous cycle, a metric critical to the swing state win.

Kathy Whitlock’s  Lessons:

1. 45% of Hispanic Republicans and 36% of Non-Hispanics say that Trump’s endorsement of a candidate makes them less likely to vote for the endorsed candidate.
2. Pollsters in Florida wait a bit longer to gather data since the Florida primary date is much later than in other areas.
3. Hispanics in Florida are leading efforts in getting out the vote, making donations, and having speeches.
4. According to Univision’s most recent survey, Hispanics feel that health care insurance does not cover enough of their health care cost.
5. Voters are mostly focused on economy and jobs during elections. Voters are in agreement on key immigration elements but it is important to note that these survey respondents are all registered voters in the United States.

About Kathy: As an experienced integrated marketer for clients and agencies in the US, US Multicultural and EMEA (Europe) markets, Kathy has built brands and businesses in categories including CPG (HBA and household),Retail, Travel, Automotive, QSR, Telecom, Entertainment and OTC. She’s “classically trained packaged goods marketer” (Johnson & Johnson), with the experience required to discover/develop brand value propositions and execute these successfully across all channels in market.

A huge thank you to our speakers for sharing their expertise with the AAPC membership!