'Latinos For Trump' To Launch Next Week In Miami
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The Trump campaign will launch their national, "Latinos for Trump" effort next week in Miami, a campaign official told CBS Miami.
Vice President Mike Pence will make the announcement Tuesday, said Marc Lotter, director of strategic communications for the Trump campaign.
He said the Vice President will be joined by Hispanic and Latino leaders from around the country. The Wall Street Journal reported Florida Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez will be one of the headliners for the event.
"We have seen very strong support from Latinos for President Trump," Lotter said.
This will be the second major campaign event for Trump in a week. Last Tuesday in Orlando the President formally launched his re-election effort.
The announcement will come one day before the Democratic debates in Miami.
Lotter said the choice of launching "Latinos for Trump" in South Florida showed the importance of Florida and the role it will play in 2020. The campaign considers Florida a "must win" state in their re-election plans. It is also Trump's biggest base of support among Latinos and Hispanics as he has courted Cuban and more recently Venezuelan voters in Florida.
"They know he is confronting the challenges in Venezuela, the dictatorship in Cuba," he said.
Lotter quickly added, however, "It is very important for the President to show his strong support for issues that matter to Latinos across the country, not just in Florida."
With its often divisive and caustic rhetoric on immigration, Republicans have traditionally lost the Hispanic and Latino vote. President Trump received just 28 percent of the Latino vote in 2016.
Trump's share was about the same as Mitt Romney in 2012 (27 percent) but less than John McCain in 2008 (31 percent) who had made immigration reform part of his campaign. The high water mark for Republicans was George W. Bush in 2004 when he received 44 percent of the Latino vote.
In order to win, Republicans don't need to win the Latino vote – they just need to remain competitive and not get blown out.
Lotter disagreed.
"The strategy is absolutely to win the Latino vote," he told CBS Miami. "When you look at what is happening under President Trump's leadership – whether it is record low unemployment for Latino Americans, when you look at wages rising, small businesses at a record for startups. So many things including defending the ability of people to have faith in our country. We see the President leading."
