Harris campaign launches Hispanic Heritage Month ad targeting Latinos at boxing and baseball matches

WASHINGTON — The Harris campaign is launching its biggest effort yet to reach Latino voters. The new spending will be used for Spanish-language radio and hosting boxing and baseball matches as National Hispanic Heritage Month begins this weekend.

The investment comes as early voting is set to begin soon in some critical battleground states with large Latino populations, such as Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

Vice President Kamala Harris will address the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s annual conference on Wednesday, according to a senior campaign official, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is expected to woo Latino voters in swing states in the coming weeks. Surrogates are also part of the travel plan, the official said in the plans, which were first shared with NBC News.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat, DN.Y., Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, DN.M., and Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez will all attend the highly anticipated super middleweight fight between Canelo Alvarez and Edgar Berlanga in Las Vegas on Saturday night. a day after former President Donald Trump held a rally in the city.

That night, mobile billboards spread around the venue featuring “Luchadora,” an ad aimed at Latino voters about Harris’ work on the border and anti-cartel efforts while he was California state attorney general.

“Latinos con Harris-Walz” is also holding events in Michigan, with Rep. Chuy Garcia, D-Ill., attending the Detroit Tigers Hispanic Heritage tailgate event on Saturday. On Sunday, Chavez Rodriguez will headline a “call a-thon” that aims to reach 500,000 voters in 30 days, according to the campaign.

“Hispanic Heritage Month is an important moment to celebrate the richness and diversity of Latino communities across the country,” Chavez Rodriguez told NBC News in a statement. “It’s also a critical moment for us to seize as we continue to reach out to Latino voters about their stake in this election, how crucial their vote will be in deciding this race and defeating Trump and his anti-Latino agenda.”

Latino leaders, including Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, will attend events in Arizona and Pennsylvania. The Harris campaign also plans to host rallies around Mexican Independence Day on Monday, including voter contact events at churches.

In addition to in-person events and arrangements, the campaign plans to spend $3 million on new ads on Spanish-language radio from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, one of the largest and most “significant” expenditures ever in Latin American media. the campaign’s leading official.

The plan includes engagements with influential radio personalities and will also be tailored to sports-themed programming focusing on local baseball, football and soccer teams.

Harris’ campaign is particularly focused on reaching undecided Latino voters who may be convinced by Trump’s economic message. Many Hispanics rely on their close networks of friends and family for information that could influence their vote, so the Harris team is also working to boost the “trusted messengers” program in these communities.

Campaign officials said they launched a “Latinos con Harris-Walz” WhatsApp channel last month to try to reach voters who may be consuming misinformation on the platform.

Latinos favor Harris in Spanish-speaking and bilingual households more than in English-speaking households, according to an August poll of eligible Latino voters. Nearly 60 percent said they would vote for the vice president, compared to 32 percent for Trump. In English-dominant homes, 51% of respondents supported Harris, compared to 38% for Trump, according to a survey by UnidosUS, the largest Latino advocacy group.

The poll was conducted by BSP Research, a Democratic polling firm whose founder, Matt Baretto, is the author of the Harris polls. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 1.8 percentage points, and a quarter of respondents answered the survey in Spanish.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com