By Sandra Fish, Colorado Sun (via AP Storyshare)

Photo credit: Alexander Grey, Unsplash

A group led by a top adviser to former President Donald Trump is producing Spanish-language mailers and radio ads with anti-transgender messaging targeted toward Colorado’s Latino voters.

The messages come from the political nonprofit America First Legal Foundation, which is led by Stephen Miller, who served as a key aide to Trump, namely on immigration issues. Because it’s a nonprofit, the organization does not have to reveal its donors and so The Colorado Sun refers to it as a dark-money group.

The mailers falsely claim that Democratic President Joe Biden and his liberal allies “are pushing radical and irreversible gender experiments on children” like blocking puberty and removing genitalia.

The mailers also feature a photo of Rachel Levine, an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department Health and Human Services, a Biden appointee who is the first transgender person to hold a federal office requiring U.S. Senate confirmation.

“It’s outrageous,” Colorado Democratic Party Chairwoman Morgan Carroll said. “They’re just outright lying and preying on people’s fears. I think it is disgusting that they have so little regard for the facts and for voters that they would make up such a piece.”

Salvador Hernandez, Colorado state director for Mi Familia Vota, a liberal-leaning group that encourages participation by Latino voters, shared Carroll’s view.

“It’s despicable that they are sending this to Latino voters,” he said. “We denounce this type of language and hate.”

The mailer reviewed by The Sun was sent to a Latino voter in Denver, which is predominantly Democratic. Because America First Legal is a nonprofit, it doesn’t have to report how and where it is spending its money, so it’s unclear how many voters received the mailer and where.

Latino turnout could be key in the state’s new 8th Congressional District, where Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer faces Democratic state Rep. Yadira Caraveo in a contest considered a toss-up.

Both political parties and outside groups are working to engage Latino voters, who make up nearly 39% of the population in the 8th District. The district spans from the northeast Denver suburbs into Greeley. For example, Americans for Prosperity and one of its affiliates, Libre Action, have spent more than $707,000 on canvassing, mailings, digital and other advertising in support of Kirkmeyer.

Israel Ortega, who is coordinating those efforts for Libre Action, said his organization is “not engaged on the issues being addressed in these mailers.” The group instead focuses primarily on economic and business issues.

Carroll said such disinformation campaigns are typically aimed at discouraging people from voting.

“This is rich, white conservatives from out of state that are targeting Hispanic communities with lies trying to get them not to vote,” she said. “Even if just 10% of them believe this, that can change the outcome of an election.”

América Ramírez, program director for the Colorado Organization of Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights, said her group will address the mailers on its weekly radio show.

“It’s toxic to see it’s targeting Spanish-speaking communities that are needing more support to turn out to vote,” she said. “This puts trans and LGBTQ young people further at risk. It’s saying their health-care needs aren’t real.”

America First Legal is also airing ads on Spanish-language radio stations KMXA, KXPK and KJMN in the Denver metro area, based on political ad filings with the Federal Communications Commission.

The group is airing radio ads in Arizona, Texas and Michigan as well.

As a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, America First Legal isn’t supposed to take part in political activity that supports or opposes specific candidates. Biden isn’t presently a candidate for office, and the messages in the mailer reviewed by The Sun don’t suggest recipients should vote for or against a candidate or party, so the group is likely within the law.

“This may have been lawyered to the point of ‘how aggressively can we mislead and still be short of electioneering,’” Carroll said. “It doesn’t pass the straight-face test.”

The Spanish-language mailers and radio ads are the latest attempt by conservatives and Republicans to make transgender people an issue in the Colorado 2022 elections.

Another dark-money nonprofit linked to Miller, Citizens for Sanity, spent $29,000 to air anti-transgender cable TV ads in Colorado’s 7th Congressional District in August. The ads featured the slogan “stop the woke left’s war on girls’ sports” and also aired in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.

And two former Olympians from Colorado formed Nine PAC, a federal group aligned with Republicans that opposes allowing trans women to participate in sports. That group donated $2,900 each to Republican congressional candidates Kirkmeyer in the 8th District, Erik Aadland in the 7th District and Steve Monahan in the 6th District.

“There’s been so much anti-trans hate that’s been happening,” said Nadine Bridges, executive director of One Colorado, an LGBTQ advocacy group. “It’s another way for them to attack vulnerable communities for political gain.”

The post Group led by former Trump adviser targets Colorado Latino voters with anti-transgender ads appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

By Caitlyn Kim, Colorado Public Radio News (via AP Storyshare)

Gerard Torrez (L) and Angel Merlos with the Libre Initiative Action was out knocking on doors and leaving literature for Republicans in Thornton, part of the state’s new 8th congressional district and which has the largest Hispanic population. Photo courtesy of Colorado Public Radio

Latino voters are a powerful force in Colorado, especially in tight races. That’s why Gerard Torrez was knocking on doors in Thorton late on a hot weekday afternoon.

Torrez’s goal was to convince people in this Latino neighborhood to support Republican candidate Barbara Kirkmeyer in the race for Colorado’s new 8th congressional district.

Door after door, he’d introduce himself, mention he was part of the group Libre Initiative Action and start talking about why he supports Kirkmeyer, noting “she’s advocated for less inflation.”

At one house, a petite brunette with tattoos who answered the door cut off his spiel with a question: “What party is she in?” “She is a Republican,” Torrez answered.

“She will have my vote and you probably don’t need to say anything else,” the woman said. “I’m not a fan of the Democrat party right now.”

It’s not always this easy. Most people were polite, but non-committal. Election day is still two months away and most of the voters who answered their doors aren’t paying too much attention yet.

But that’s not stopping the parties and different groups from trying to sway this pivotal voting bloc.

Torrez is with Libre Initiative Action, a Hispanic outreach group backed by the conservative Koch brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity. The group estimates it’s knocked on around 4,000 doors in the eighth district since August.

Latinos make up 22.3 percent of Colorado’s population, and voters in that group are far from a monolith. But while Colorado Latinos have strongly supported Democratic candidates in the past, Libre’s strategic director, Angel Merlos, believes concerns about inflation and cost of living give Republicans an opportunity to make inroads this year.

“They believe that if they vote Democrat they think they’re going to get the same results. So we’re seeing, ‘You know what, I’m going to give the conservative vote a chance,’” he said.

Merlos said he does wish Republicans on the extreme right of the party would tone down their rhetoric on immigration.

The new 8th District, which has a large Latino population is at the center of a toss-up congressional race

Libre is focused on Thorton because it’s in CO-8, the state’s newest congressional district which is considered a toss-up race. It’s also the district with the most Latinos, at almost 40 percent of the population. The Republican National Committee recently opened a Hispanic Community Center here, part of a national outreach effort to nonwhite communities.

At the center’s opening, Colorado RNC National Committeewoman Vera Ortegon told the crowd that when it comes to issues like securing the border, crime and the economy, the GOP and Hispanic population are on the same page.

“I look at the values of the Republican Party, and then I look at the values of the Hispanics and they’re the same,” she said.

Democrats have also been very active in making their case to the voters of CO-8. The Colorado Democratic Party has opened two field offices in the district and has also had volunteers door knocking and working the phones, reportedly making an average of 10,000 calls in Adams county and across the state a week.

“Latinos will see right through the GOP’s half-hearted effort,” said Nico Delgado, a spokesperson for the Colorado Democrats. “We will make sure voters know their far-right record of trying to ban abortion, siding with wealthy corporations, and opposing a pathway to citizenship which hurts all Coloradans.”

There are also nonpartisan efforts underway just to encourage more residents of the district to vote, regardless of who for. The eighth district currently has fewer registered active voters than any other district in Colorado.

Sonny Subia, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens in Colorado, is part of that push. He has also been out knocking on doors, registering Latinos to vote. He said all the attention on voters here shows just how important Latinos will be this fall. “Now they’re in play. Their vote really matters.”

The race is between Kirkmeyer, a state senator, and Democratic state Rep. Yadira Caraveo, with many analysts giving Kirkmeyer the edge, as history and the political climate favor Republicans.

But if Caraveo wins, she would be the first Colorado Latina to go to Congress. And that possibility excites Thornton Democrat Shantell Hernandez, who moved to the area to be around other Latinos.

“This would be a place where we actually have a voice. A lot of places are really Caucasian. And there are a lot of places I don’t see a lot of people that look like me,” she explained. “So I’m really excited that, yeah, you will have a voice, that’s our own voice.”

The Senate race between Michael Bennet and Joe O’Dea is also focused on Latino voters

Congressional district eight isn’t the only big race where Latino voters could be pivotal. In a close U.S. Senate race, they could also be key to victory, something it’s clear both campaigns are very aware of.

“We are gonna have a vigorous program for TV, for radio, for digital,” Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet explained at an event in August with the group Voces Unidas Action in Glenwood Springs. “We’re not just starting now. We’ve had a Latino steering committee for a long time. That’s helped give us advice about what we should be focusing on in the campaign.”

His Republican challenger Joe O’Dea is also reaching out through Spanish ads and social media.

“Joe’s working class story connects with working Americans, Hispanics and Latinos especially,”’ Kyle Kohli, O’Dea’s communications director, said in a statement. “Everyone cares what the grocery bill is and if their community is safe. [President Joe] Biden’s policies and Bennet’s rubber stamp have crushed working people.”

O’Dea has said he hopes to get 60 percent of the Latino vote in the race. That would represent a huge swing in the vote; some reports and exit polls from two years ago showed 70 percent of Latinos supported Colorado’s Democratic Senate candidate John Hickenlooper.

Some Latino Democrats say the party has taken their community’s support for granted

When it comes to values, Democrats like former state Rep. Bri Buentello argue their party has a strong case to make.

“I’m not going to sit here and pretend to speak for all Colorado Latinos,” she said at a coffee shop in Pueblo. “But I know that my grandparents came to this country because they believed in the American Dream, public education, [the idea that] if you work hard, you’re gonna get ahead, a fair day’s wage for fair day’s work. These are issues that Democrats to this day champion.”

Still, many Latino Democrats say the party has been taking support from the community for granted. Pueblo community activist Theresa Trujillo notes she hasn’t seen many people of color running or even encouraged to run for statewide office. All six of the Democrats running statewide this year are white.

“I think that there are many ways that Latinos aren’t recognized as a strength in the Democratic Party and need to be recognized as a strength,” she said.

But Sol Sandovol, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Congress in the 3rd district, said she doesn’t think the answer is for Latinos to turn away from the Democratic Party.

“If there is anything that we need to change, we need to push back and change it. The worst thing that we can do is leave our party behind.”

Cost of living and high gas prices are the top concerns for Latinos, according to polls

Recent polling of Latino voters by UnidosUS and Mi Familia Vota indicates that when it comes to the issues, there is an opportunity for both parties to make gains.

The cost of living and high gas prices came out as the top concern for Latinos in Colorado, with jobs and the economy coming in third. In between those was crime, mainly driven by the concern that guns are too easy to access and that elected officials need to do more to end school shootings. And abortion also made the list for the first time, with 74 percent of Latino voters saying it should remain legal, whatever their own personal beliefs on the issue.

While Republicans have made Democratic handling of the economy a major campaign issue, support for stronger gun controls and access to abortion could send these voters toward Democrats.

Regardless of the outcomes this fall, Beatriz Soto, a Democrat from Glenwood Springs who lost a bid for local office in 2020, is glad to see the parties showing up for Latinos.

“Both the Democrats and the Republicans are really noticing the power in that voting bloc,” she said. “At the end of the day, I think if either parties are doing their job, it just helps our democracy. And I think Latinos will make both parties better at the end of the day.”

The ultimate test however will be what happens after Election Day, and whether the parties continue their outreach or if they once again fade away until the run-up to the next election.

CPR’s Bente Birkeland, Will Cornelius and Stephanie Rivera contributed reporting to this story.

The post Latino voters could be decisive in Colorado’s biggest races, and the campaigns know it appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

On November 24, 2014, a jury in Ferguson, Missouri, decided not to indict Darren Wilson, a white police officer, for the murder of an unarmed, black teen named Michael Brown on August 9, 2014. Yes, murder. You do not shoot someone eight times while they have their hands up and call it anything else.A

On December 3 in Staten Island, New York, Daniel Pantaleo, another white officer, received an early Christmas present – no indictment on murdering Eric Garner, a black, unarmed man, by choking him on July 17, 2014. Yes, murder. You do not choke someone to death while they repeatedly say, “I can’t breath, I can’t breath, I can’t breath…” and call it something else.

Ignited by the blatant disrespect for black lives, thousands of students from Denver Public Schools walked out of class to protest the verdicts. They chanted, organized, held each other while asking for something so simple, yet sometimes so unattainable in America: to breath without feeling like they have a target on their back. Those students showed us what love looks like. What it means to turn something ugly into something beautiful.

Then the criticism (after all, the students were mostly black and brown youth standing in unity):
“Students are just using this as an excuse to skip class.”
“Most of them cannot even explain why they are walking out.”
“They are wasting public money. They should be in class learning.”
“They need to respect the justice system.”

On Monday December 8, I was sitting in a staff meeting for the school I work at. The student walkouts came up and my colleagues poked fun at the fact that some students could not articulate why they were walking out. Note to educators: just because a student cannot articulate with words what they are feeling does not make what they feel any less valuable. Just because you may not have the awareness to talk about race and police brutality it does not mean you cannot give students the space to talk about it. Your unawareness should not be an excuse for silencing students.

Others expressed concern at the possibility of our students joining the walkouts (our student body is almost all latino, immigrant, first-generation students from low income families in a predominantly latino neighborhood). To which our school leader responded: “Whatever is happening in Furgeson or New York has nothing to do with our students…”

I nearly fell out of my seat. I wanted to stop every nodding head agreeing with that foolish comment. I wanted to ask if they had heard of Andy Lopez, 13, killed by police in Santa Rosa, California, when the officer confused his toy-gun for a real gun and shot Andy seven times. No charges for the officer.

Or Alejandro Nieto, 28, killed by police in San Francisco, California, on March 21, 2014, for eating lunch at a park. He was shot over 14 times by four different officers. He was a full-time student working on his criminal justice degree. No charges for the officers.

Or Angel Ruiz, 42, shoot dead by police in Salinas, California, on March 20, 2014. Or Osman Hernandez, 26, shoot dead by police in Salinas, California, on May 9, 2014.

Or Carlos Mejia, 44, shoot dead by police in Salinas, California, on May 20, 2014, when cops mistook his grass cutters for a gun. Or Frank Alvarado, 39, shoot dead also in Salinas, California, on July 11, 2014, when cops confused his cell phone for a gun.

(All men murdered in a predominantly latino neighborhood.)

Or Michael DeHerrera beaten unconscious by police in Denver, on April 4, 2009, for talking on his cell phone. Or Juan Vasquez, then 16, also viciously beaten by police in Denver, on April 18, 2008, for having an unopened beer can in his hand.

Or Ryan Ronquillo, 20, killed by police in Denver, on July 2, 2014. Shoot 12 times outside a funeral being held for his friend. Still no charges for the officers that shot him.Or John Paul Quintero, unarmed, 23 , killed by police while he was handcuffed in Wichita, Kansas, on January 3, 2015.

Then there was the case in our school of a student, in the spring of 2014, who was handcuffed by our security officer and peppered sprayed multiple times for no apparent reason. The security officer now works at a different school.

Sadly, police brutality and terror have everything to do with our students. When our youth of color are disproportionately targeted and racially profiled for simply existing, Ferguson and New York have everything to do with our students.

When the school-to-jail pipeline funnels black and brown youth into the prison system via zero-tolerance policies, stop-and-frisk, and anti-gang initiatives that reinforce the stereotypes of black and brown youth as gang members, and therefore legalizes racial profiling. When black and brown youth represent 70 percent of school related arrests or referrals to law enforcement, Ferguson has everything to do with our students,. New York has everything to do with our students.

When the current administration has deported more than 2 million immigrants breaking up families, and leaving children and parents in limbo, Ferguson has everything to do with our students.

When an average of 18,000 latino and an average 32,000 black youth are incarcerated everyday in the US; the annual spending for incarceration, probation, and parole has increased 127 percent in the last 20 years ($70 billion dollars spent annually); and funding for schools has increased only 21 percent in those same 20 years, New York has everything to do with our students.

When black and brown youth make up 60 percent of the incarcerated youth but are only 34 percent of the total youth population in the country, Ferguson has everything to do with our students.

Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize winning author, stated about race/racism, “There’s no such thing as race…racism [race] is a construct…it has a social function [purpose].”

What is the purpose of race in my students’ lives? Is to fill prisons with black and brown bodies so that the fat cats that own the prisons can keep getting fatter? Now that slavery is ‘’illegal,” how is slave-like labor replicated? Is the purpose of race to turn us into a stereotype, a thing that can be gunned down? I cannot help to think that yes, there is a systematic genocide against black and brown people, that there is profit in locking us up.

I think about how we teach our students. This goes beyond foolish comments in staff meetings or in public. It concerns me that white educators may not have the competence to talk about race with our students, or that if they do, they will just pat themselves on the back: “Look at what I am doing for these poor kids.”

It worries me that we teach our brown students that their struggle is not connected to a black struggle — that they should see an event like Ferguson as distant to them.

Note to educators: Ferguson and New York have everything to do with our students. Our students will have questions. We may not have all the answers. Be open to learning from them. Treat them as human beings. Lack of resources should not be an excuse to muffle students from meaningful conversations. Make space for those conversations. Try to see things from a different perspective. Challenge your colleagues and friends on their ignorant comments. Try to educate yourself on all struggles that may affect your students. Above all: listen.

The post Why #blacklivesmatter is a Latino/a Issue appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.