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Sep 8, 2022 - Politics & Policy

First look: Latino consultants launch bipartisan news aggregation site

Russell Contreras
A bilingual sign stands outside a polling center at public library ahead of local elections in Austin, Texas.

A bilingual sign stands outside a polling center at public library in Austin, Texas. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

A pair of Latino consultants — one Democrat and one Republican — is launching a new website focused specifically on curating news about Latino voters.

The big picture: Latino.vote aims to be a RealClearPolitics or Drudge Report-like aggregation source for any news about Hispanic voters, a growing bloc whose political power is being closely tracked amid recent shifts in voting behavior.

  • The website promises to feature updated polling about Latino voters, news from other media sites and opinion pieces by Latino consultants and advocates.

Details: The project is an extension of the Latino Vote podcast run by Chuck Rocha and Mike Madrid, two Latino political consultants from opposite sides of the political spectrum.

  • Both Rocha and Madrid say Democrats and Republicans are ignoring the needs of Mexican American voters in the American Southwest and Puerto Rican voters in New York and Florida.
  • They contend media outlets continue to get information wrong about Latino voting behavior and social changes occurring in various Hispanic communities.
  • Rocha and Madrid also say a shortage of Latino journalists and distrust in media have helped contribute to disinformation on social media, which experts say has influenced Latino voters.

Zoom out: Websites and apps more popular with Latinos in the U.S. than other groups make them more susceptible both to exposure to misinformation and to sharing it, according to a Nielsen report.

  • The report found 28% of the content Latinos see on news websites they most frequently visit was flagged as biased, conspiracy-based, or pseudoscientific.

What they're saying: "We're taking on disinformation in a bipartisan way," Rocha told Axios.

  • "This website will fill a big need for journalists, academics, political professionals, and elected officials,” Madrid said in a statement.

The big picture: Data, surveys and recent primary elections show that Republicans are making inroads with Latinos, but Hispanic women are shifting back to Democrats as abortion has become a more pressing national issue.

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