Democrats Downplay Pride Month Promotions in Spanish-Language Campaign Materials

With Latino voters center-stage heading into the midterm elections, Democrats are selling something different to Spanish speakers than they are to English speakers — literally.Despite going all-out for Pride Month on their English-language websites, for example, some Democrats are toning it down on that topic on their Spanish-language websites even though LGBT acceptance among Hispanic and Latino voters has reached record highs in recent years.Last week, the Democratic challenger to Governor DeSantis in Florida, Charlie Crist, pulled just ahead of Mr. DeSantis in the polls. The former governor and congressman also pulled his Spanish-language shop off his campaign site.Mr. Crist had been selling gay pride merchandise featuring the tagline “say gay” and rainbow flags, as well as a “trans pride” sticker. Then some conservative Latinos noted that these items were not available on the Spanish-language website.After they made the discovery public, Mr. Crist’s campaign removed the shop off the Spanish-language site entirely. Where the English site has the menu options “Volunteer,” “Store,” “Jobs,” “Issues,” and “Español,” the Spanish site has only “Voluntario” and “English.”Mr. Crist’s shop continues to sell offer gay and trans pride merchandise on the English site. His is not the only one.The campaign site of a Texas gubernatorial candidate, Beto O’Rourke, also features a shop with pride merchandise in English, but not in Spanish.The omissions come despite support for LGBT issues among Latino and Hispanic voters apparently reaching higher than it has ever been, according to a March 24, 2022 Axios-Ipsos Latino Poll conducted with Noticias Telemundo.Overall, 62 percent of all Latino adults reported that they were “accepting” of the LGBT community, with support as high as 76 percent among third-generation Latinos but falling as low as 50 percent among first-generation Latinos.More recently, a June 8 Gallup survey found that — proportionately — more Hispanics identify as LGBT than white and Black Americans. About 11 percent of Hispanic adults identified themselves as LGBT versus just more than 6 percent of white or Black adults.Pollster Jeffrey Jones attributes the increasing acceptance to changes in attitudes among younger Latinos. Older Latinos, who are also more likely to vote, remain about evenly split on the issue of LGBT acceptance.The executive director of DignityUSA, Marianne Duddy-Burke, who advocates for LGBT acceptance among Catholics, suspects that candidates are staying away from the topic in their campaign literature and promotions because they do not want to offend the Catholic Church or more conservative evangelical institutions.“My sense is that they are more afraid of offending religious institutions rather than the voters,” she told the Sun.Ms. Duddy-Burke argued that in all likelihood, the move to pull LGBT-related merchandise from stores, or to not offer it on the Spanish site, was a fumble by candidates.“All I can say is that they are probably missing out on some more support if they are not letting their Spanish-speaking constituents know of their support for the LGBTQ community,” she said.The move comes in a year when Hispanic and Latino voters are more in the spotlight than ever, with Republicans making big gains among Latino voters in places like South Texas and Miami.In sharp contrast to the Obama years, Democrats in those areas are on the defensive these days. President Biden’s approval rating among Hispanics has dropped nearly 20 points since February 2021.One post-2020 election report conducted by Latino Victory, Third Way, and The Collective — three major Democratic interest groups — suggests that Latino voters are among a group of “persuasion voters who need to be convinced.”The report warns that Republican gains among Latinos in 2020 could be a lingering headache for Democrats in 2022, particularly along the southern border. “Drop-off in support among Latino and Hispanic voters were the lynchpin in Democratic losses in races in FL, TX, and NM — especially among working class and non-college voters in these communities,” the report concluded.

Democrats Downplay Pride Month Promotions in Spanish-Language Campaign Materials

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