The launch of America’s first conservative Spanish-language news network this week has liberals worried they’re losing their grip on a key voting bloc.
SO WHAT
Amid mounting indicators that Latino voters are drifting toward the GOP, the left has good reason to be concerned.
WHAT HAPPENED
The network, called Americano, premiered on satellite radio Tuesday and is expected to start streaming TV programs this summer, NBC News reported.
“Our launch in the U.S. represents a counterrevolution, and the entry onto the scene of the only non-progressive national media outlet created by and for the Hispanic American community,” Americano said in a statement.
- According to NBC News, the network, which features right-leaning news and opinion, has close ties to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and to former President Donald Trump’s campaign.
- With an estimated 41 million Spanish speakers living in the U.S., some experts think Americano might be striking hot iron.
“Never before has there been an opportunity for conservative media to target Spanish-language voters and listeners than now because the technology is there and there is a discomfort out there with politics in general,” said Joe Peyronnin, a New York University journalism professor and former executive for Telemundo.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Liberal journalists and Democratic Party operatives have responded with dismay and dread to Americano’s arrival on the media scene.
- “For those concerned about the disinformation problem harming Democrats’ chances with Hispanics, this is a Defcon 1 moment. We should worry,” Fernand Amandi, a pollster who aided Barack Obama’s Hispanic outreach efforts, told NBC News.
- “The Democrats’ response to all of this Hispanic outreach from Republicans — whether it’s disinformation or conventional campaigning — is to do the bare minimum. Unfortunately, some Democrats are deluding themselves. The ultimate act of disinformation is to pretend that this is not a big problem.”
- Democratic consultant Evelyn Pérez-Verdía called Americano’s launch “really concerning.”
Americano’s founder and CEO, Ivan Garcia-Hidalgo, told NBC News liberals were right to fear his network, but not because of “disinformation.”
- “They’re scared. And they should be,” Garcia-Hidalgo told NBC News, referencing Democrats.
- “Democrats took Hispanics for granted for too long, and no one thought to create a home for us in conservative media. There is an appetite for this. You see it on social media. You see it in elections.”
THE NUMBERS
President Joe Biden won 63 percent of the Latino vote in 2020, but a number of recent polls have Democrats worrying aloud that they’re losing Hispanic voters.
- Activist organizations have started to scrub the word “Latinx” from their communications, after polling showed only 3% of Hispanics use the woke term and 40% find it offensive.
- A Wall Street Journal poll released in December found Hispanic voters are now evenly split between the two major U.S. political parties.
- Latino supporters of Donald Trump are even more bullish on some national populist positions than white Trump supporters, a recent UnHerd analysis found.
According to some analysts, Latino voters’ realignment is part of a broader shift to the right among working class and non-college-educated Americans.