Conservative group launches multi-year campaign engaging Latinos around America's 250th anniversary
The LIBRE Initiative, a nonprofit funded in part by the Koch family's conservative political network, is launching a seven-figure nationwide campaign to reach Latino voters ahead of the country's 250th anniversary.
The campaign, launched with Americans for Prosperity, another group within the Koch network, aims to foster a connection between Latinos and what the group described as the country's "founding principles," Daniel Garza, the executive director of the free-market organization, told ABC News.
Garza hopes the initiative will help Latinos identify themselves in the history of the United States and the country's founding and embrace the group's message on limited government and free-market values.
"By engaging Latinos around these values, we grow our audience," Garza said. "And we strengthen our brand, so people can connect the dots: What are the founding policies, because they're based on American principles, and who are the champions promoting them?"
The multiyear "One Small Step" campaign will include events across the country, organized by LIBRE's state chapters, and include paid media efforts on television and YouTube, civics classes and other community events.
For decades, LIBRE and conservative groups have worked to attract Latino voters to Republican candidates and causes, typically around election seasons or specific topics or policy items.
In 2024, President Donald Trump won nearly as many Hispanic voters as Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race, winning 48% of their votes. That was 12 points better than his 2020 performance against Joe Biden -- an improvement Republicans hope to lock in and establish as a new baseline with the influential and diverse voting bloc.
Some Democratic strategists, who acknowledged Harris' underperformance with Hispanic voters, have argued that Trump's strength with the group may not translate to Republicans down ballot in the upcoming off-year and midterm elections.
A recent New York Times poll of registered voters found that roughly 26% of Hispanic voters approved of Trump's handling of his job, with 69% disapproving.
The poll also found 52% of all voters disapproving of his handling of immigration, including 75% of Hispanic voters. The president's deportation and immigration enforcement agenda, including the deployment of ICE agents into some major cities, has prompted backlash in some corners of the Latino community.
Trump has also received mixed marks on his handling of the economy, which was a top issue to Latino voters and Americans at large last year. According to The New York Times, 44% of voters approve of Trump's handling of the economy, while 53% disapprove.
Roughly 45% of respondents said Trump has made the economy worse since taking office, compared to 32% who say it is better, and 20% who say it is about the same.
At a time of deep political polarization in the country, the new campaign could help conservatives deliver their message to voters at a different decibel than the political discourse, and also help LIBRE sell some of the legislative accomplishments in Republicans' major rewrite of the tax code earlier this year.
"This is common ground. This is to bring people together, and unifying of Americans," Garza said of the campaign's themes. "These are principles that we all fight for."
