One of the highest viewership men's soccer tournaments in the world, Copa América, kicked off Thursday and the Biden campaign is seizing on the opportunity to engage and mobilize Latino voters across the U.S.
The Biden-Harris reelection team will host watch parties for the soccer matches with campaign surrogates, distribute Biden soccer jerseys, and place ads across the country for the roughly month-long duration of the tournament.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden-Harris 2024 campaign manager, said in a statement that the campaign is looking to "harness the energy of Copa to mobilize and reach the Latino voters who will decide this election in their communities, on the airwaves, and at Copa matches."
In line with Thursday's inaugural match in Atlanta between Lionel Messi's Argentina and Canada, the Biden campaign unveiled its 30-second spot "Goaalll!" that will run on television, radio and digital platforms across English and Spanish markets. The ad references the 2021 Copa América tournament — which was delayed a year from the summer of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic — in an effort to contrast Mr. Biden's record with former President Donald Trump's administration.
"Four years ago, we were shut down," the ad narrator says over images of empty seats. "Stadiums were empty, Trump failed us, but then Joe Biden took over. He reopened the country and got us back on track."
A red soccer card is placed over Trump's face, as the narrator says that "Trump talks and talks and Biden gets s--- done."
In response to the ad push, Jaime Florez, Spanish spokesperson for the Trump campaign, told CBS News in a statement Thursday that "it does not matter how much money the Biden campaign will spend trying to get the attention of Hispanic voters, they will not succeed. Hispanics are very concerned with inflation, the prices of everything rising all the time, the insecurity of our neighborhoods, with the crisis at the border, it's a waste of time and money."
In June, Trump's team rolled out its "Latino Americans for Trump" campaign as part of its mobilization efforts to reach the over 36.2 million eligible Latino voters across the U.S. The campaign is intended to show Latino voters "that the American dream is alive and reachable, and how the great achievements they enjoyed during the past years of Republican leadership will be coming back soon" according to Florez.
In 2020, Mr. Biden won Arizona by fewer than 11,000 votes, as was the case in Georgia. Mr. Biden clinched Nevada by less than 33,000 votes.
In 2024, one in four Arizona voters will be Latinos, according to numbers from the Pew Research Center, while in Nevada they will make up one out of every five. These are states where this year's general election winner will be decided on the margins, and Latinos will play a critical role in determining the outcome.
More than 10 Copa América matches are scheduled in battleground states like Nevada, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina. They're key locations that the Biden campaign says it will capitalize on.
Nidia Cavazos is a 2024 campaign reporter for CBS News.
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