The campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus will make its first major general election ad buy on Wednesday, spending $1.1 million on Spanish-language broadcast, radio and digital ad bookings for September to support Rep. Ruben Gallego ( D-Ariz.) in his candidacy for the Senate.
The ad buy is the largest purchase in the history of Bold PAC, the campaign arm of the Hispanic Caucus.
“As the son of immigrants from Colombia and Mexico who grew up poor and took any job he could to help his family survive, Ruben understands what Arizona families are going through. He turned to service, first as an infantryman in the Marine Corps and then as an elected official, because he wanted to give back to the country and communities that gave him so much,” said Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), a former Marine, like Gallego.
“This investment is designed to help ensure that the Latino voters in Arizona who will make a difference in this race know that he is the one who will never stop fighting for them.”
Gallego, the former president of Bold PAC, is running against Republican Kari Lake for the seat vacated by Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who won the seat as a Democrat but later left the party to become an independent.
Democrats are preparing for a difficult Senate election, where they are almost certain to lose at least one seat from their already thin majority, and will defend six other competitive seats where Republicans will be on the offensive.
Although 11 Republican-held seats are up for re-election, all of them are in reliably red states: only Senators Rick Scott (Florida) and Ted Cruz (Texas) are facing any kind of substantial Democratic challenge.
In addition to the Senate race, Arizona is also a competitive state for the presidential race, and Democrats are on the offensive in House districts held by Republican Reps. David Schweikert and Juan Ciscomani, both classified as close by the Cook Political Report.
“Many people see Arizona as competitive in this election cycle, and it certainly is, but that is due to years and even decades of local work. This cycle is also very competitive because we have a very strong candidate on the ballot,” said Victoria McGroary, executive director of Bold PAC.
Although Gallego fought an uphill battle to gain buy-in from national Democrats to take on Sinema, he planted a flag early to prevent her from running as an independent — rather than in the Democratic primary — if she decided to launch a bid for re-election.
Now party leadership backs Gallego, a candidate tasked with increasing turnout in a critical presidential battleground state.
This membership, with investments in English-language media outlets, is allowing Bold PAC to direct its resources toward Spanish and Spanish-language media outlets, an arena currently monopolized by the group.
According to McGroary, the Bold PAC investment is the only Spanish-language broadcast campaign purchase currently recorded in Arizona media markets, and reserves are running out quickly.
“We know that the Latino community will decide the results of electoral contests, including the Senate race in Arizona. And so, as we put our reserves in place and design our strategy, everything is focused on how we communicate directly with the Latino voters who are going to make a difference in this race,” McGroary said.
“Spanish is a big priority for us. Spanish is also a big priority for us, and making sure that we’re reaching the Latino community, especially online, digitally, you know, where people get news, where they get information, so that we can connect with them directly where they are. , as they wish to consume.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
