The campaign arm for the House Democrats announced Thursday an outreach program targeting Hispanic Americans, underscoring the importance of the key group of voters in November's election.
Titled "Mi Congreso Mi Voto" the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's focused effort targets 16 congressional districts across eight states with large Hispanic populations. The House is currently controlled by Republicans by a 242-193 margin.
Both sides have made notable efforts to garner Hispanic support prior to the November contests considering the group's status as one of the fastest growing minority population in the United States.
Next week's Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida will emphasize a series of high-profile Latino Republicans in an attempt to highlight the party's diversity by reserving prominent speaking roles for rising conservative, Latino stars such as Sen. Marco Rubio from Florida, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and Senate candidate Ted Cruz from Texas.
The campaign for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released a Spanish-language ad in July targeting Latino voters and featuring his son, Craig, who is fluent in Spanish, urging voters to "get to know" his dad.
In a statement about the Democrats' new program, House Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Xavier Becerra pointed to Republican-supported policies Democrats claim would hurt Hispanic Americans.
"Republicans are focused on defeating President Obama, while supporting an agenda that would end Medicare and Medicaid, eliminate jobs, and block the DREAM Act at any cost, while giving tax breaks to millionaires and companies that ship jobs overseas," Becerra said in a statement about the program, also noting the importance of the group's participation in determining Democratic success in November.
But Latino interest in the 2012 election appears to be lagging. Compared to the 2008 election cycle, Hispanic interest levels in 2012 are 10 points behind where they were in the previous election, according to an NBC-Wall Street Journal-Telemundo poll conducted in July.
Obama, who carried Hispanic support handily in 2008 against Republican Sen. John McCain, continues to have an overwhelming amount of support from the Latino community compared to 2012's presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.
Obama's advantage over Romney among the politically imperative demographic remains steady from previous months, with the president taking 67% to Romney's 23% of registered Latino voters' support in July.
These polling numbers followed the president's executive order in June halting the deportation of illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children. Obama's order was popular nationwide but especially among Latinos who were significantly in favor of the new policy by almost nine-in-ten, according another NBC-WSJ poll taken in June.
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