During the 2022 cycle, the Republican Party made a commitment to Latino voters that hadn't been seen before, touting nearly two dozen RNC Hispanic Community Centers in a high stakes gambit to attract Hispanic voters that have drifted away from the Democratic Party.
In 2021, upon opening a center in San Antonio, Rep. Tony Gonzales said the centers were critical to unlocking wins in Democratic districts. "Many of these communities have felt forgotten by the Republican Party for a very long time," he said then.
On September 9, 2022, during the sprint to the election, the Republican National Committee opened a center in Phoenix alongside Senate candidate Blake Masters, with RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel declaring: “This center is part of our party’s commitment to building relationships with the Hispanic community."
The community centers were pitched as a dream intersection of fun, civic life, candidate recruitment, and GOTV muscle, with the party touting Thanksgiving potlucks, toy drives, religious services, crypto workshops, and even an ugly sweater Christmas party with Folklorico dancing in San Antonio. Community centers continued to pop up in Hispanic communities and positive headlines continued to flow.
But four months after the grand opening of the Phoenix center, it was closed, along with most of the other centers, the RNC confirmed after The Messenger reached out. While the RNC touted opening 20 Hispanic community centers during the 2022 cycle, it said there are only five centers currently open, two of which were opened in 2023.
Daniel Garza, the executive director of the LIBRE Initiative, a grassroots conservative group which has worked in the Latino community for over a decade, told The Messenger the project was a cautionary tale about making sure when you experiment that you prototype and gets the bugs out first. You "don't want to go big and fail," Garza said.
"In this case they went big and it sounds like they didn't get the response from the community they intended," he said. "That's OK, they tried, we appreciate that. But you have to have people on the inside who can advise you — these are long-term things that need to be backed by resources."
The RNC told The Messenger its budget can only go through the chair's term and when all leases ended at the end of her 2022 term, it made sense to seek new locations for some this cycle. It also said it plans to re-open centers in Las Vegas; Tucson, Ariz.; Milwaukee; and Allentown, Pa. - swing state locations The Messenger found were closed through photos and in-person visits to addresses where the centers were supposed to be.
While the RNC only has five Hispanic community centers open in New York, California and Texas, it said it plans to open 40 community centers in Hispanic, Asian Pacific American, Black, Native American, Jewish, and veteran communities this year.
“Democrats have taken the Hispanic community for granted for far too long, no amount of money spent will change the fact that Biden is a disaster for our community, from the economy, to the border and rising crime," RNC Hispanic Communications Director Jaime Florez told The Messenger. "Republicans will continue to make historic investments in Hispanic voter outreach, from opening more community centers to launching ‘Deposita Tu Voto’, that will further our gains with Hispanic voters and deliver Republican victories in 2024.”
Still, much has been made of the Democratic Party and the Biden campaign needing to improve with Hispanics who have pulled away from the party, including Latino men, amid the challenge of engaging an increasingly young electorate. That reality underscores the missed opportunity for Republicans over much of the last year, political observers said.
Republican sources pointed to the party's troubled finances due to a big drop in funding and donations arguing it was a reason many of the "expensive centers" needed to be closed, which may help explain why many of the centers weren't quickly reopened when chair Ronna McDaniel won re-election last January.
The RNC disputed the idea those financial considerations played into the closing of the centers.
In November, The Washington Post reported that the party had $9.1 million in cash on hand, the lowest amount for the RNC in any Federal Election Commission report since February 2015, compared with close to $20 million at the same point in 2016 and about $61 million four years ago. At the same time, Democrats had nearly double in cash on hand at $17.7 million, with part of the reason for the cash gulf being because Republican donors thought helping the RNC would help Trump.
Nonetheless, the RNC told The Messenger it is moving forward with its Bank Your Vote campaign – a nationwide early in-person voting and ballot harvesting push – that is the cornerstone of its political strategy in 2024, along with a Spanish-language equivalent, Deposita tu Voto, to reach Hispanics.
But Democrats and Republicans alike who do the difficult work of engaging Latino communities say long-term and tailored investment was needed in these communities, something fly-by-night efforts for a few months can't match.
“The RNC's decision to scale back on its Hispanic Community Centers boils down to effectiveness and strategy," said Giancarlo Sopo, who directed Trump's Hispanic advertising in 2020. "While some centers, like Miami's, succeeded with GOTV and civic education initiatives, others fell short, veering towards activities like movie nights."
Sopo said data generally shows that the Hispanics who are likeliest to vote Republican are typically more culturally assimilated.
"These voters may perceive specialized outreach as a form of ‘othering’ and find it off-putting. Of course, there’s immense value in Hispanic outreach for Republicans, but it should be highly nuanced and tailored by region.”
While the RNC said some centers will move, as was the case with the McAllen, Texas one being replaced with a new location in Edinburg, the temporary nature of the centers belies the initial promise that Republicans would create meaningful relationships and a longstanding presence in Hispanic communities as a counterweight to Democrats who were said to be neglecting the community.
“That makes sense because they said they had a presence in San Antonio but we never saw them really doing anything with the center," Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro told The Messenger. "We won more races in Bexar County in 2022 than we’ve won in 40 years.”
Hector Sanchez Barba, the president and CEO of Mi Familia Vota, a national progressive grassroots group active in eight states, said his group was always skeptical when they heard that the RNC was opening Latino centers all over the country.
"It does not surprise me to hear that the RNC overpromised and underdelivered to our community," he said. "We are in the community fighting for the Latino policy agenda and we have never seen nor heard about these centers. They are as irrelevant as MAGA is toxic to Latinos."
A longtime Republican Party operative said the GOP still hasn't figured out how it views Latino voters.
"Hispanics for Republicans, they continue to view it not as an opportunity, but still a little bit as a threat," the source said. "That mindset many times is reflected in how they invest their dollars."
Garza said the LIBRE Initiative has opened many offices itself and even closed some, but much of the chance of success when establishing yourself in the Hispanic community depends on the kind of talent you bring in to run the place.
His group has gotten better at it through experimentation, practice, and commitment.
"It's not if you build it, they will come, you have to identify what the need is in the community and what barriers they're facing, the political landscape, the policy nuance, do you need to bring in church or chamber of commerce leaders, and then how do you market your services?" he said. "There's a lot to it, it turns out.
Cecia Alvarado, a Las Vegas activist who has worked in the community for 15 years, was shocked to hear the RNC centers closed because she never heard they opened in the first place.
"This is the first I hear about them, or hear the RNC talk about having any Latino plan in place," she said. "I have not heard of a single event by the RNC specifically trying to reach Latinos. LIBRE is out there, they organize year round, they're pretty active, but I have not seen the RNC organizing around the Latino vote."
Garza put it more succinctly.
"There's intent and then there's the reality that smacks you in the face," he said.