The outreach to Latino voters by the Republican and Democratic campaigns this year has been particularly evident in key battleground states where the Latino vote could be decisive for either party, and one of those states is Pennsylvania. It is the largest state in the battleground, with 19 electoral votes at stake, and is home to a sizable Latino community: 53% are Puerto Rican. The campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have tried to connect with Puerto Rican voices prominent in the culture as a way for the community court to decide in November.
In August, Puerto Rican reggaeton artists Anuel AA and Justin Quiles joined Trump on the campaign trail at a Pennsylvania rally in late August. Anuel AA endorsed Trump and slammed President Biden before speaking directly to Puerto Rican voters.
“So, all Puerto Ricans, let’s stay united — let’s vote for Trump,” he told the crowd, adding, “he wants to help Puerto Rico grow and succeed as a country.”
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Anuel AA has four albums that have hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin albums chart, and has sold out tours in the US, South America and Europe, and Quiles has his own string of hit songs. But to those outside the Latin music world, their names are unknown, a point Trump made when introducing the two.
“I don’t know if these people know who you are, but good for the Puerto Rican vote. Every Puerto Rican will vote for Trump now.” And a few weeks later, at a public meeting in Las Vegas, he did not know another Puerto Rican artist, Nicky Jam.
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Trump exclaimed, “Do you know Nicky? He’s hot!” Nicky Jam is a man. Undaunted, Nicky Jam joined him on the mic and told the crowd, “We need Donald Trump as president again.” This triggered an immediate backlash on social media between fans and fellow Latino artists who were both upset by the endorsement and who felt Nicky Jam had been mocked by the former president. Among those who criticized the artist was Mana, the Mexican rock band that removed the 2016 song with Nicky Jam and explained in a post on social media that it “doesn’t work with racists.” Nicky Jam has finally removed his endorsement from Instagram.
Democrats have also courted the bloc, deploying Puerto Rican actors who support Harris to a rally in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in September. Liza Colon-Zayas, known for her role in the series “The Bear” and Anthony Ramos, who was part of the original Broadway cast of “Hamilton,” both campaigned for Harris on the seventh anniversary of the destruction of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
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At the rally, Colon-Zayas warned the crowd about the Trump administration’s response to the hurricane.
“We remember that after Hurricane Maria devastated the island, Trump blocked billions of dollars for hurricane relief,” he said, adding, “He didn’t respect us – how he called Puerto Rico ‘dirty and poor’ and threw paper towels at us.”
As president, Trump withheld $20 billion in hurricane aid over three years, arguing that the money would go toward paying off the island’s debt. A former Trump aide said that at one point, he even joked about trading with Denmark: Puerto Rico for Greenland. At 2020six weeks before the election, Trump released the aid.
The denunciation of Puerto Rico is a major part of the criticism directed at artists who support Trump. Nicky Jam, Anuel AA and Quiles have seen their social media pages flooded with comments calling them sellouts or out of touch with their own communities.
Ray Callazos, Executive Director of UNIDOSUS, told CBS News, “Issues related to the island of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican community still resonate strongly with Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania.”
Callazos observed sing types of Latino surrogates make each campaign “indicative of the target audience in the Latino community.” He added that while Harris has a “very playable Latino persona that appeals to assimilated English-speaking Latinos,” Trump’s surrogate has “more of a street brand, a very macho male brand that appeals to younger Latinos.”
It is worth noting that the dream endorsement is Bad Bunny, a global superstar who not only enjoys the support of younger Latinos, but also has crossover appeal as a major cultural icon.
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Bad Bunny, a native of Puerto Rico, is no stranger to politics. He recently bought several billboards criticizing the island’s current ruling New Progressive Party, saying the vote was a vote for corruption.
Many of the song’s lyrics criticize the ineffective response by the government in Puerto Rico to crises like the massive hurricanes that hit the island in the past few years. While it’s unclear who Bad Bunny will support in the presidential election, in 2017, during an interview with Billboard, he wore a shirt that seemed to target then-President Trump. Read, “Are you a tweeter or a president?”
Trump has made clear what he would do for the Puerto Rican community if elected, but polls show his message resonates more with Latinos.
A recent NBC/Telemundo poll of Latino voters found 40% of Latinos back Trump, an increase from 2020, when he received only 32% of the Hispanic vote.
Callazo said Trump will gain more support among Latinos by “targeting Latino voters who can be convinced at the margins,” like younger Latinos. He also said that the campaign also focuses on conservative religious communities on social issues.
For his part, Harris has also not announced a specific plan for Puerto Rico, and the Biden administration has faced its own challenges in addressing the island’s needs. In February, a government accountability report found that of the $23 billion in FEMA funding allocated to rebuild Puerto Rico after a series of hurricanes and earthquakes beginning with Hurricane Maria in 2017, only $1.8 billion had been spent, and $11.3 billion still needed approval. FEMA before. it can be disbursed.
Puerto Ricans also want a government impair the rich American tax dodgers who have been speculating in real estate in Puerto Rico and driving up the cost of housing for the island, well beyond what they can afford. Issues like this have led to complaints in the Latino community that politicians on both sides of the aisle only seem to care about Latinos when they need a vote, only to be forgotten until the next election cycle.
It’s impossible to say whether any of the artists weighing in on the 2024 election will make a difference at the polls this fall, but it’s indicative of the wide variety of outreach the parties are doing to move Latinos to the polls.
Callazo said that the Puerto Rican voters he spoke to in Pennsylvania “want authentic participation” and that they “want more. He added that both campaigns “need to invest more in culturally competent direct voter contact that resonates with certain Latino voters in Pennsylvania.”
Christopher Brito contributed to this report.
