Representative Rubén Gallego is president of the BOLD PAC Hispanic Caucus Committee.
Foto:
GREG NASH / AFP / Getty Images
The Democratic Party faces a challenge to maintain a majority in Congress in 2022, due to the slow advance of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, his low popularity, the stagnation of possible protection for undocumented immigrants and redistricting.
However, representative Rubén Gallego (Arizona), president of the BOLD PAC Hispanic Caucus Committee, highlighted three actions that are already being worked on: recruiting potential candidates, ensuring Latino participation in legislative redistricting with new districts, and ensuring that the Latino vote counts, keeping promises made.
“We are recruiting candidates, not only in districts with a Latino majority, but throughout the country,” he said in an interview with this newspaper. “We are involved in redistricting … We want to make sure that the opportunity is seized that Latinos have a chance to compete.”
The third aspect, he said, is to make sure that Latinos know that their vote counts, that is, that there is a positive consequence of supporting Democrats, “that we are taking into account the issues that interest the community,” said Gallego.
When pointing out the importance of immigration issues for the Latino community, the representative affirmed that, regardless of the route, they will seek to have some kind of protection for undocumented immigrants, either rejecting the opinion of the parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough in the Senate or promoted another legislative project.
“I think the Senate should ignore the parliamentarian,” he said. “The parliamentarian can give the recommendation, but that does not mean that we should be tied to it”.
La agenda Build Back Better
Democrats trust the agenda Build Back Better (Reconstruir Mejor) It will be the spearhead during the 2022 electoral campaign, but it was questioned that currently congressmen cannot agree on what should be included or the final amount, initially proposed at $ 3.5 billion dollars, but which could be reduced to $ 2 billion.
“It depends on what happens with the Build Back Better agenda, it is one hundred percent certain that the Latino community will benefit when it is implemented“, he claimed. “We are the working class of the United States, we are the people who continued to work … when there were quarantines it was Latinos who continued to work, they went to restaurants, to stores, to farms, to meatpacking factories.”
He was insisted on the stagnation in Congress and if all the benefits that were promised would be integrated, since that could impact the campaigns that are just in their first planning stage.
“Once the plan is achieved and people can see the result, people will join us,” he defended while minimizing the stagnation that exists in Congress, as he assured that the electorate “is interested in the results, not the process”.
He insisted on the benefits for Latino families: the Child Tax Credit, medical assistance focused on dental and vision care, as well as childcare assistance.
“We are going to get some issues approved that will directly benefit the Latino community and help them improve their purchasing power and be more successful,” he said.
A source from the Senate confirmed to this newspaper that this week there will be new guidelines for social investment, on which the plans of the bill could begin to be drawn up and it would be the following week when the discussion becomes more relevant in Congress.
Biden’s low popularity
Congressman Gallego was also questioned about how the low popularity of President Biden, who has lost an average of 16 percentage points of approval since he arrived in the White House, will affect the 2022 election.
Although he acknowledged that such a scenario exists, the representative dismissed an affectation, considering that it was too early to determine it.
“We are 15 months away for the next election,” he recalled. By then, he said, President Biden’s economic agenda will already be moving forward and more results will be seen.
For now, BOLD PAC is focused on the first steps to reach the intermediate electoral process.
“We will see where there are opportunities … we will call the applicants, we train them … we help them build a political network,” he said. “Our job is for these potential candidates to compete properly.”
eldiariony.com
Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.