Hispanic Federation Mobilizes 150,000 Latino Voters in Florida and Other Key States to Get Out and Vote
NEW YORK, NY (November 7, 2016)— Hispanic Federation announced today that it is mobilizing 150,000 Latino voters in Florida, New York and Connecticut in the final days before Election Day 2016. More than 100 volunteers and staff are participating in an innovative, non-partisan Get Out The Vote (GOTV) campaign that includes traditional door-knocking combined with new texting operations focused on making sure Latinos take advantage of early voting, know their voting places and rights, and vote on Election Day.
In an effort to raise awareness of the importance of this GOTV effort, Hispanic Federation invites media to visit its operations centers on Monday, November 7 and Tuesday, November 8:
New York: Hispanic Federation, 55 Exchange Place, Suite 501, New York, NY 10005
Florida: Proyecto Somos Orlando, 6900 Orange Blossom Trail, 2nd Floor, Orlando, FL 32809
Connecticut: Center for Latino Progress, 95 Park Street #2, Hartford, CT, 06106
Hispanic Federation’s effort in the closing days of the campaign caps a six month-long effort to register, educate and mobilize voters in Latino communities. This effort has included voter registration drives, candidate forums, town halls, civic education programs, and a public affairs campaign designed to raise awareness of the importance of the Latino vote.
“We have spent the better part of 2016 making sure that we registered, educated and mobilized Latino voters in places such as Florida and now, with Election Day around the corner, we are focusing on GOTV,” said Hispanic Federation president José Calderón. “We’re confident these efforts will help drive a record number of our voters to the polls and that they will in turn help determine who the next President of the United States will be.”
Over 125,000 of Hispanic Federation’s voter contacts in the closing hours of the campaign will take place via an innovative text messaging application called Hustle. Hispanic Federation is operating GOTV texting crews out of New York, Connecticut and Florida with a particular focus on getting Latino Floridians out to vote. A recent Hispanic Federation report, “Latinos in Central Florida: The Growing Hispanic Presence in the Sunshine State,” featured Nielsen data indicating Hispanics own and use smartphones at higher rates than other Americans, providing an opportunity to creatively connect with and empower Hispanic voters like never before.
The consulting and public relations firm, MirRam Group, developed a multimedia public service campaign for Hispanic Federation to encourage Puerto Ricans in Florida to vote. Two television ads, Familia and Mi Gente aired more than 1,700 times on leading Spanish-language platforms including Univision, Telemundo and WAPA América. More than 1,500 radio ads ran in the greater Orlando area. And an online campaign earned more than 650,000 unique visits and more than 2.5 million impressions online. Jennifer López, René Pérez Joglar (Residente) from Calle 13, America Ferrera, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ruben Blades were among celebrities that promoted the ads.
“Given the importance of the Latino vote in Florida, we understood that mobilizing voters in the Sunshine State was going to be a big part of our work this year,” stated Betsy Franceschini, Hispanic Federation's Florida State Director. "The media outreach campaign designed by MirRam Group was critical to the success of our efforts.”
“We’re proud that MirRam Group collaborated with Hispanic Federation on this comprehensive campaign for Spanish-language television, radio and digital platforms,” said Luis Miranda, Managing Partner del MirRam Group, LLC.
