LIBRE, which operates under the Americans for Prosperity super PAC network, is endorsing five Republican candidates running for Congress. On the list is former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers running for U.S. Senate in Michigan, incumbent Reps. Gabe Evans (R-CO) and Tom Barrett (R-MI), and former assistant U.S. attorney and Army veteran Eric Flores, who is running in Texas’s 34th Congressional District.
“Hispanic families across the country are looking for leaders who prioritize pocketbook issues and the safety of our communities over partisan politics,” LIBRE Action senior adviser Sandra Benitez wrote in a statement. “From South Texas to Central-Michigan and the Colorado Rockies, the candidates we are endorsing today have shown they don’t just ask for the Latino vote, they earn it through action.”
LIBRE officials told the Washington Examiner that the group has chapters in all three states and will “immediately” mobilize to help elect the candidates.
The Latino vote was critical not only to President Donald Trump‘s return to the White House in 2024 but also in helping Republicans capture control of both the House and Senate.
However, polls show that GOP support among Latino voters has slipped during Trump’s first year in office, as it has with the wider electorate, especially on the economy and immigration.
“We really are super sensitive to cost of living, in part because so many Latino perceptions of what the American Dream are tied to your kid going to college, you buying that first car, you having a quinceañera that you can afford with your family, you buying that first house. These are all economic milestones,” one LIBRE official explained.
As for immigration, “part of what’s turning off Latinos is the messaging,” the official continued. “We also need more good messengers in Congress to be able to share the good news, and so, that’s kind of where we approach it.”
Early voting for the Texas primary started Tuesday. According to the state’s election rules, if no candidate gets higher than 50% in the March 3 primary, then a runoff between the two highest vote-getters will be held on May 26. LIBRE believes that Flores is destined for a runoff.
The organization said that both Evans and Barrett will waltz to reelection.
HISPANIC CONSERVATIVES ACCUSE HOUSE GOP HOPEFUL OF DEFRAUDING DONORS AND ACTIVISTS
Rogers’s race to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) is the highest profile of the bunch. It marks Rogers’s second campaign for the Senate after serving in the House from 2001 to 2015.
In 2024, Rogers lost to Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) by less than 20,000 votes. Although still facing a primary, Rogers is the front-runner and has amassed a sizable war chest and received Trump’s endorsement.
