UnidosUS’s GOTV efforts during the 2020 election cycle
By Carlos Guevara, Associate Director of Immigration Policy, and Stephanie Presch, Content Specialist, UnidosUS
Last week, through UnidosUS ¡Adelante! 2020 Campaign, we initiated a broadcast media outreach accountability campaign targeting 20 million Latinos in Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, and Colorado. This is part of a six-figure investment that UnidosUS has made in order to ensure that eligible members of our community have the opportunity to go to the polls and make their voices heard in this year’s election.
After months of “will they, won’t they” pandemic recovery talks, it’s clear that Americans are facing the prospect of Congress skipping town before the election without passing much needed pandemic recovery legislation. Latinos are disproportionately frontline workers and among the sick and dying from the coronavirus. As Latino voters decide who earns their vote, they are being reminded of their families, communities, and those across the country that are suffering from the pandemic.
This effort compliments many ongoing designed to educate the Latino electorate. Our polling has continued to show that the pandemic response is the number one issue for Latino voters, which is why through more than 20 past and planned virtual events we have been working hard to educate our community about what’s at stakes in this election. Moreover, we hosted a roundtable in Spanish and a town hall in English to give our community important information on voting in this year’s election, which has changed due to protocols surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, in an important milestone, our civic engagement efforts have resulted in more than 125,000 eligible voters registering to vote for the 2020 elections, greatly surpassing the 80,000 goal we set after the pandemic hit. Prior to this cycle, UnidosUS had registered more than 700,000 voters over the last decade.