Hispanic congressional Democrats will grow their ranks come January, overcoming obstacles set by the Republicans and by their own party.
“The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) is the biggest bright spot in this election,” said Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.), the chairman of Bold PAC, the CHC’s campaign arm.
{mosads}The CHC will have 31 members in the 115th Congress, up from 26 in the 114th.
Every CHC incumbent up for reelection will be back for the next session, and the caucus will welcome eight freshmen, including Catherine Cortez Masto, of Nevada, the first Latina ever elected to the U.S. Senate.
Cárdenas played a key role in the CHC’s growth.
“The CHC is the largest it has ever been in the history of our country and I give full credit to Bold PAC and Congressman Cárdenas and his board,” said Chuck Rocha, president of Solidarity Strategies, a campaign consulting firm that worked on several of the races.
Bold PAC broke fundraising records in this election cycle, passing the $4.5 million mark, well over the $700,000 it raised for the 2012 campaign cycle, according to numbers from the Federal Electoral Commission.
But in a Democratic campaign that cost nearly $1 billion, Bold PAC’s success lay in organization and a mentorship program tying existing members to new candidates, starting with the primary process.
The race to replace outgoing Rep. Janice Hahn (D-Calif.) pitched the CHC against the California Democratic Party, including the state legislature’s own Hispanic caucus.
CHC Chairwoman Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) identified California’s 44th District as a solid Latino target and began a search for a primary contender, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) told The Hill.
Sánchez recruited incoming Rep. Nannette Barragán (D-Calif.), a former city councilwoman and lawyer who fought for environmental causes, to run for the seat, and Gallego took on the mentorship role.
Barragán ran against California State Senator Isadore Hall, who was endorsed by Hahn, Gov. Jerry Brown, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and a host of top California Democrats.
“I was told that this wasn’t my turn,” Barragán said.
Under California’s jungle primary system, the two top contenders in a primary regardless of party affiliation compete in the general election.
The race was a result of outgoing Rep. Loretta Sánchez’s (D-Calif.) bid to take over retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer’s (D-Calif.) seat. In that race, state Attorney General Kamala Harris, a Democrat, handily beat Sánchez, with endorsements from President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
Although the group successfully defended all its incumbents and gained five House seats and the Nevada Senate seat, it only unseated one Republican, Nevada Rep. Cresent Hardy.
Races that drew the attention of the national Democratic Party and its House Majority PAC were — with the exception of incoming Rep. Ruben Kihuen’s (D-Nev.) victory against Hardy — unsuccessful.
“What we don’t know is if Ruben Kihuen would’ve won anyway, but Bold PAC played in that race in the general,” said Rocha.
House Majority PAC spent nearly $2 million to support Emilio Huerta’s unsuccessful bid to unseat California Rep. David Valadao; $1.7 million in support of former Congressman Joe Garcia against Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), and $2.2 million on the race to unseat Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas).
Hurd narrowly defeated former Congressman Pete Gallego, who he unseated in 2014, in a district that tends to swing Democratic in presidential elections.
Although Gallego ran a door-to-door campaign in the 55 percent Hispanic district, House Majority expenditures ran no Spanish-language TV ads.
But the CHC was able to capitalize on its cultural competency and understanding of Hispanic diversity with pickups in New York and Florida.
Incoming Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) will become the first Dominican-born and first former undocumented immigrant member of Congress, representing a district that’s a focal point for Dominican immigrants in New York City.
CHC support was crucial in getting Espaillat through his hotly contested primary to take over retiring Rep. Charles Rangel’s safe Democratic seat.
In Florida, incoming Rep. Darren Soto is representative of the state’s growing Puerto Rican population, which played a large role in the surge of Democratic voting in the Orlando area.
“I don’t think people have realized the CHC has turned a corner, we’re organized,” Ruben Gallego told The Hill.
Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials Educational Fund (NALDEF), called the spike in Hispanic Congressional representation an “unprecedented achievement in an election not held immediately after redistricting.”