Noticias Univision Will Host Two 'Los Latinos Preguntan' Election Town Halls

Happy Wednesday afternoon from Springfield, Massachusetts to our 736 subscribers and our social and podcast audience of more than 6,000 followers. The Latino Newsletter is finishing up its third month of operations this week.

The 2024 election cycle is getting more and more Latino, but you already knew that, right?

The latest development is that Noticias Univision announced Tuesday that it will host two separate town halls in October that will feature Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, respectively.

As the official press release notes:

The special “Los Latinos Preguntan … Donald Trump Responde” will air on Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 10 p.m. ET from Miami, Fla. “Los Latinos Preguntan … Kamala Harris Responde” will air on Thursday, Oct. 10, at 10 p.m. ET from Las Vegas, Nev. Both events will air coast-to-coast with Spanish-language translation on Univision and stream on ViX’s Noticias 24/7 channel and will also be available in English on Noticias Univision’s YouTube channel. 

With one month to go until the U.S. presidential election, journalist Enrique Acevedo will moderate both town halls, featuring undecided Hispanic voters who will take the microphone to ask questions of each candidate. Former President Trump and Vice President Harris will address key issues that are on the top of voters’ minds, including the economy, jobs, healthcare, immigration and foreign policy. The events will put an electorate that represents close to 15% of the voting bloc front and center, creating a forum exclusively for Latinos.

So, this is a debate without a debate? No matter what you think about Univision and Televisa (I shared thoughts last year about Trump’s first interview), this was a power move that will shine a light on the 2024 Spanish-speaking Latino electorate and those who follow Latino politics.

Should make for one intense week.

Pew Latino Poll: Harris 57%-Trump 39%

On Tuesday, a Pew Research Center survey of Latino registered voters that ran from the end of August to the beginning of September said that “a majority of Latino registered voters (57%) say they would vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and 39% would vote for former President Donald Trump.”

Other conclusions from Pew:

• The presidential preferences of Latinos look similar to 2020, when Biden defeated Trump 59% to 38% among Latinos who voted.

• 70% of Latinos who back Trump say their choice is more a vote for Trump than against Harris. This is a slightly bigger share than in October 2020, when 62% of Latino Trump supporters said their choice was a vote for Trump.

• By contrast, Latinos backing Harris give mixed reasons for their vote choice: 54% say their vote is more a vote against Trump than for Harris, while 46% say it’s a vote for Harris. Notably, this is similar to what Latino Biden supporters expressed in October 2020, when 59% said their vote was more of a vote against Trump.

Read the complete report here.

What We’re Reading

Alleged Vote Stealing in Puerto Rico: The fabulous team at Puerto Rico’s Centro de Periodismo Investigativo published an English version of its blockbuster investigation about the island-colony’s voting system.

Meanwhile, Puerto Rican megastar Bad Bunny has made it clear that he is campaigning against Puerto Rico’s pro-statehood PNP party this election cycle. On Tuesday, his X profile posted billboards against the PNP, saying that these billboards were paid by “Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio,” “a Puerto Rican that does love Puerto Rico.”

Here is just one of the billboards, which says that “A Vote for the PNP is a vote for corruption.” (The billboards later included more “Paid for” information.)

It is definitely a topic trending in Puerto Rico, which holds elections on November 5.

Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder and interim publisher of The Latino Newsletter.