Aggressive Campaign Targets Latino Millennial Voters

By Shaun Boyd

DENVER (CBS4)- From door-to-door canvassing to social media messaging, this election has given rise to maybe the most aggressive campaign ever in Colorado to target Latino voters.

"There are millions of dollars going into Colorado to make sure Latinos get out to the polls," says Ana Temu with Colorado Latinos Rise - an umbrella organization for 10 different advocacy groups that are pooling money and resources this year to step-up Latino turn-out.

They are targeting Latino millennials especially.

There are more than 500,000 eligible Latino voters in Colorado and 41 percent are millennials. They are now the fastest growing voting bloc in the country and Colorado is home to a first of its kind effort to engage them.

"We're reaching people who perhaps would never be reached at the door, on the phone because they move, they change cell phones, but what they don't change is that social media page," says Jesus Altamirano with Generation Latino.

The group does all its outreach through social media.

"What's most important is that we reach them where they're at and they're on social media - Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter," said Temu.

And, Temu says they're worried about the same stuff everyone else is, "The Trump - let's-not-vote-for-Trump - is not really motivating people to go out to the polls. What is motivating people is the local issues like raising the minimum wage."

But while Latinos are growing exponentially in number, their political power remains untapped. Historically, they are the least likely voting block to turnout.

Temu aims to change that this election, "We're really going to target a lot of Latinos that we've seen in past are not likely to go to the polls and so we're going to make sure to agitate them a little bit more to make sure they get out there."

Latinos Rise is being funded by the Immigrant Voters Win PAC - a Washington D-C based group with deep pockets. It's spending $15 million in Colorado, Florida and Nevada - all swing states - to get out the Latino vote.

Shaun Boyd is CBS4's political specialist. She's a veteran reporter with more than 25 years of experience. Follow her on Twitter @cbs4shaun.