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Comedian Al Madrigal is among a group of celebrities who traveled to Washington this week to discuss issues impacting the Latino community. Ahead of a visit to the White House, the Democratic group Equis, which organized the trip, presented the group with polling showing Donald Trump’s strong standing among Latino male voters.
“That is a little disheartening,” Madrigal told Semafor in an interview, adding that he picked up on voter discontent ahead of Trump’s upset 2016 victory as well when he was traveling for stand-up shows. “You know, the knock on Hollywood people is that it’s like flyover states and we only are familiar with L.A. and New York but I had spent a lot of time in most parts — Indian casinos on the Arkansas-Oklahoma border. … I get a sense of where that comes from, but it’s still a little jarring.”
Madrigal said he attributes Trump’s rise among the key Democratic constituency to frustrations about the US economy that are afflicting the broader American electorate. “It’s voting with your pocketbook and looking at interest rates,” he said. “If you’re a first-time homeowner looking at these interest rates, it’s pretty daunting.”
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Madrigal along with actors Jay Hernandez, Arturo Castro, and Cristo Fernández visited the White House Monday to talk with officials about issues like the economy, immigration, education and to participate in a Cinco de Mayo celebration.
The group participated in a Q&A with White House adviser Tom Perez, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, according to an Equis spokeswoman. They also met first lady Jill Biden and Latino White House staffers.
The visit was not political in nature, but it came as the Biden campaign ramps up its outreach to Latino voters. The campaign launched a new ad push last week to target Latino men on abortion rights, for instance, and Biden appealed to Latino voters during a stop at a Mexican restaurant in Phoenix back in March. “We have your backs and you have ours,” Biden said during the Cinco de Mayo event in the Rose Garden Monday afternoon.
Republicans, meanwhile, feel like they have an edge due to recent polling, which shows Trump continuing to erode Democrats’ advantage after previously making gains in 2020.
“The Hispanic vote will be decisive in November, and it is a fact that a significant percentage of Latino voters have been changing from Democrats to Republicans because they realized that they align much more with the principles and values of the Republican Party — family, freedom, patriotism, economic model, faith and a good education of our children,” Jaime Florez, the Republican National Committee’s director for Hispanic communications, said in a statement.
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Trump signaled ambitious events to court Latino and Black voters but they haven’t yet materialized, the Associated Press reported.
Latinos are “at the center of a tug of war that could determine elections across the country,” the New York Times wrote.