Once Election Day arrives, Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns will get a closer glimpse at which strategies worked– and which flopped. During this cycle, voters under 35 made up roughly 29% of the national electorate, and with razor thin margins across the country, campaigns were obliged to pay better attention to young voters.
As a result, we’ve seen candidates show up in ways you might not expect. Both campaigns have used memes and viral moments on social media platforms, like TikTok to get out their message. A platform that nearly 50% of all Latino adults use. A sub-group of young voters that has become particularly crucial this election.
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In addition, Vice President Kamala Harris made headlines after appearing on the popular lifestyle podcast, Call Her Daddy, favored among young women. While Former President Donald Trump stepped into the manosphere pocket of new media, and appeared on the podcasts, This Past Weekend with Theo Von and The Joe Rogan Experience– both extremely popular among young men.
Roughly 17.5 million Latinos are projected to vote in 2024, and 1 in 5 is voting for the first time ever. “They are representing a larger portion of this emerging American electorate,” says Christina Bajarano, Political Science professor at Texas Woman’s University. “Latinos tend to be a younger population in the U. S., but as that younger population starts to get old enough to [vote], we’re seeing that Latino eligible voters tend to be younger than eligible voters overall throughout the country” Latinos represent 50% of the total growth in eligible voters this cycle. What makes the young Latino vote particularly powerful is that the most significant increases in turnout are expected in key battleground states.
Thus, both campaigns are looking to make gains with this growing electorate, and have tapped two young Latinos, Hilario Deleon, 23, and Carlos Eduardo Espina, 25, to get out the young Latino vote.
Hilario Deleon is the Chairman of the Republican party of Milwaukee County, representing almost 1-million people in the battleground state of Wisconsin. But just 4 years ago, Hilario was a dishwasher, before he was tapped by the GOP in Wisconsin to get young men of color to vote for Trump. He says he doesn’t care what he has to do to get out the vote for Trump, “if I have to run through a war zone he’s got my vote. And I’m going to try and get so many other people [to] join me, friends, family, neighbors, doesn’t matter, independents, swing voters, Democrats, anyone and everyone.”
While older Latino voters have historically voted Democratic, the relationship between young Latinos and the Democratic party is far from cemented. According to the Brookings Institute, 37% of young Latinos say that the Democratic party and the current President don’t care about the Latino community. It is that feeling of jadedness among young Latinos that gives the Republican party– and Hilario a slight edge. The Trump campaign doesn’t need to speak to young Latino voters in particular because they have a dependable base of older, non-college educated, white voters. So, Hilario just needs to find the right ones, the ones like him who are drawn to the party because of Trump.
On the Democratic side, the campaign is working with 25 year old, Carlos Eduardo Espina. He is an immigrant rights activist who just graduated from law school, and has 14 million followers combined on his social media platforms. “I think that’s the most important thing. You know, like you always have to provide some sort of value or use to the user. And I think that attracts people.” Carlos says.
RenéeDisResta, author of Invisible Rulers and former research Manager at Stanford Internet Observatory tell us that political influencers popped up as, “political campaigns realized that the same sort of capacity for persuasion that could help somebody decide to buy a pair of shoes could be used to help somebody decide to vote for a particular candidate.” Renée doesn’t see a future where influencers aren’t entangled in campaigns.
Back in February, when Biden was still the Democratic candidate, Carlos met with the White House Digital Communications team, and in August he was 1 of 5 social media influencers to secure a powerful speaking spot at the Democratic National Convention, where he endorsed Harris for President. Carlos is convinced that influencers like himself make a difference, but what he’s not so sure of is if young people will follow through and vote.
Time will tell if Hilario or Carlos have made any changes to the young Latino vote, where even a small population can tip the balance of power. Until then we wait and see.
This story is part of our special election coverage: The Latino Factor: How We Vote.
Featured graphic by Monica Morales-Garcia.
This episode was produced by Mónica Morales-Garcia and edited by Mitra Bonshahi. Fact-checking by Roxana Aguirre. It was mixed by Gabriela Baez with engineering support from J.J. Querubin.
