The largest Latino group in the country supported the president Joe Biden in Arizona on Tuesday and said the group will also work to turn out voters to influence potential ballot measures on abortion, minimum wage and immigration. These measures, says the group, are so important in getting Latino voters to the polls.
Janet Murguía, president of UnidosUS and its political arm, UnidosUS Action Fund, gave the group’s support to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and supported Rep. Ruben Gallego in his race for U.S. Senate and Raquel Terán and Kirsten Engel in their disputes for the Chamber. They are all Democrats.
Proposed measures in a highly competitive state include asking voters to legalize abortion and increase the minimum wage. The Legislature was also scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to put a Republican-backed immigration measure on the ballot with several proposals, including one to create a state law similar to a Texas law that allows police to arrest people illegally in country and judges to deport them.
“We are looking at this state comprehensively,” Murguía said. “Of course the national presidential election is crucial for us, but we see an opportunity to leverage participation in representation in Congress… and furthermore, these are the key issues that will impact our community, the minimum wage… . and then the ongoing battle we wage for women’s reproductive health rights.”
Arizona Republicans won a state Supreme Court ruling to impose a near-total ban on abortion in 1864 and fought efforts to repeal it. The governor signed a repeal of the law after a handful of Republicans joined Democrats to pass it.
Endorsements, Murguía said, can be leveraged not just for one candidate, but also to benefit the community on multiple fronts, across multiple candidates and across multiple issues.
UnidosUS announced its endorsement as the state approaches a boiling point regarding immigration. The battle is reminiscent of the atmosphere that prevailed more than a decade ago over anti-immigration measure SB 1070, which allowed state police to question people about whether they were in the country legally for any reason. Much of that law, known as the “Show Me Your Documents” law, was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that immigration enforcement is a federal, not state, authority.
At the same time, Joe Arpaio, then the sheriff of Maricopa County, used racial profiling as part of an anti-immigrant campaign that included dressing detained migrants in pink underwear and keeping them in camps during hot weather. .
UnidosUs joined other organizations in boycotting the state, which has led to lost tourism revenue and business sales.
“This ballot measure would take us backward, not forward,” Enrique Davis Mazlum, state director for UnidosUS Action Fund in Arizona, said of the proposed immigration measure. “If passed, it opens the door to discrimination, including racial profiling of immigrants and Latino Arizonans in places where our community should feel safe, such as schools, churches and hospitals.”
Murguía said the organization and others are “better prepared to react” against measures considered harmful to the Latino community.
“I think we discovered that our voice and our vote matter, and we have a track record of success when we come together and use both,” she said.
The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, NALEO, projected that 855,000 Arizona voters in the November election, or 1 in 4, will be Latino.
About 814,000 Arizona Latinos voted in 2020, up from 543,000 in 2016, according to UnidosUS’ Hispanic Voter Data Center.
Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes in 2020, and Latino voters were seen as critical. His victory turned the state, which was historically red, around. Although Biden won a majority of Hispanic voters, Donald Trump has made inroads and polls suggest he could do better in this election.
UnidosUS, with Voto Latino, Mi Familia Vota and Latino Victory Project, plan to spend a total of $50 million on registration, voter canvassing, media buying and voter participation. Davis Mazlum said they will particularly target people without strong voting histories in urban areas and in communities on the U.S.-Mexico border.
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This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
