The Republican National Committee opened a Latino Americans for Trump field office in Berks County, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, with former Governor of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuno and Republican nominee for U.S. Senate Dave McCormick on the stump, appealing to Hispanic voters on the border and inflation.
The office opening in Reading came days after the Trump campaign relaunched its Hispanic coalition, committed to re-electing former President Trump this November. Founded as Latinos for Trump during the 2020 election, the campaign announced the relaunch ahead of a Trump rally in Las Vegas Sunday.
Trump lost battleground Pennsylvania to President Biden by just 1.17% of the vote in 2020. In Berks County, where the RNC field office just opened, Trump beat Biden by just under 17,000 votes.
“We wanted to identify Latinos with Americans,” Jaime Florez, Hispanic communications director for the Trump Campaign, told Fox News in an interview about the relaunch. “We are Americans. We have been in this country. We vote in the country. We are citizens. … We’re not here for a couple of years, and then we go back to our countries. No, we came here to stay.
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“President Reagan used to say that Hispanics are Republicans. They just don’t know it. Well, we’re finding out.” Florez added. “Democrats took us for granted for way too long and made us promises that they never fulfilled.”
National polls indicate that young, Black and Hispanic voters are embracing the Republican Party amid concerns over inflation. A Fox News poll conducted in May 2024 found 17% of Hispanic voters said the economy is their single deciding issue in the 2024 election.
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From politicians to Pennsylvanians, two issues were top of mind at the RNC office opening on Wednesday — the economy and the border.
“Everyone is hurting. Really,” former Governor of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuno told Fox News in an exclusive interview. “Most people are hurting, and they want change. The Republican Party is the only party that can bring about that change just to make sure that we keep more of our hard-earned money, that we protect the family and our communities and that we stand strong as a country.”
Fortuno emphasized the need to elect Republicans up and down the ballot this November, telling Pennsylvanians — in English and Spanish — to vote for U.S. Senate Candidate Dave McCormick. Emphasizing his business background, Fortuno said McCormick understands the weight of inflation Pennsylvanians feel on a daily basis.
Speaking with reporters after his remarks at the office opening, McCormick said he’s vying for every Pennsylvanian’s vote and sees an opportunity to connect with the Latino community over shared policy concerns.
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“Republican values are very much aligned with many in the Latino community,” McCormick told reporters. “It’s essentially the idea of creating an economy and creating an environment that allows people to pursue the American dream. Industrious, hard-working, want the best thing for their children and an economy where small businesses can prosper and create jobs, where they can raise their kids in communities that are safe. I think that lines up very well with the principles of the Republican Party.”
Pennsylvanians are seeing Latino Americans shift to the Republican Party.
“They’ve been duped all these years by the Democrats,” Kathy, a retired voter from Reading, told Fox News Wednesday. “They’ve been told, ‘Oh, we’ll do this for you. We’ll do that for you.’ And they’re only using them. They don’t do anything for them, for the minorities.”
District 157 Candidate for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Regina Mauro echoed Kathy’s sentiment that Democrats have failed Latinos in an interview ahead of the office opening.
“They see the weakness of the current leadership,” Mauro told Fox News of the political shift in Latino voters. “Latinos, we like strong leaders. So, whether it’s the situation domestically or with foreign policy, economically, we’ve been extremely disappointed. … We need peace. We need more stability”
Mauro said common sense is driving “Trumplicans,” whom she described as minority voters formerly of the Democratic Party, to turn away from President Biden and embrace former President Trump.
“I’m a first-generation American,” Mauro said of the frustration felt by legal immigrants. “My parents, my whole family came from Cuba. A lot of Hispanics take offense to having the one line for legal immigrants where they spend a lot of money and years to do the right thing, the respectful thing like you would for any other country. Just to see, Democrat politicians that are catering to foreigners to come through the border, to just, in essence, skip the line.”
Hispanic voters have seen a revolving door of presidential campaigns vying for their vote this election cycle as Trump, Biden and even Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are competing for young, Black and Hispanic votes. The Biden campaign launched Latinos con Biden-Harris in March to “engage and mobilize Latino voters, communities, and leaders across the country.”
“Donald Trump does not care about the Latino community,” Biden-Harris 2024 Pennsylvania Hispanic media press secretary Nemesis Mora said in a statement to Fox News on the “Latino Americans for Trump” office opening.
“He’s spent his entire adult life vilifying us, and his entire time in office making our communities worse off. … The truth is, Donald Trump has failed Latinos and our families, while President Biden has actually delivered real results for Pennsylvanians, like lowering health care costs, creating good-paying jobs resulting in the lowest Latino unemployment ever and making historic investments leading to Latino small businesses opening at the fastest rate in a decade. That’s why this November Latinos in Pennsylvania will send Trump back to Mar-a-Lago.”
The Biden campaign has 24 offices and more than a hundred staffers on the ground in Pennsylvania. President Biden and Vice President Harris visited Pennsylvania more than 10 times in the first five months of the year. Trump has visited Pennsylvania three times this year, most recently ahead of the primary election in April where he endorsed McCormick.
