In September, Maryland Latinos Unidos announced the launch of Spanish-language spots encouraging people to register to vote and get out to the polls.

Also this fall, Montgomery College teamed with a faculty and student group to increase voter registration of Latines on campus. And Salvadorans for Harris-Walz, a national grassroots group, has organized bilingual phone banks to speak with Latine voters in battleground states.

Throughout the state and across the country, efforts have been made to connect with the Latine community, a complex voting population that presents tantalizing possibilities but also challenges for Republicans and Democrats.

Maryland’s Hispanic population has grown faster than any other group since 2018, increasing 14%, from about 589,000 in 2018 to about 672,000 in 2022, according to five-year estimates from the American Community Survey. The state’s overall population grew by just 2.6% over the same period, and the white population fell by about 3%.

October has underscored the potential reach of the Latine demographic, from the controversial Donald Trump rally in New York City, panned for its racist attacks on Puerto Ricans and immigrants, to Kamala Harris racking up mega-endorsements from Jennifer Lopez (250 million Instagram followers), Bad Bunny (45.6 million Instagram followers), Ricky Martin (18.6 million Instagram followers), Marc Anthony (13.5 million Instagram followers), Maná (2.3 million Instagram followers) and Los Tigres Del Norte(1.8 million Instagram followers).

Maryland businessman David Rosario said recently that he’s had “surprising” conversations with other Latines — many of them fellow business owners — who say they support will support Donald Trump for president. Rosario, who is of Dominican descent, said other business owners are worried that a Harris presidency could bring tax hikes or prove unable to cool inflation, which was 2.4% in September.

“Folks seem kind of tired of what they feel is kind of a false promise,” said Rosario, highlighting immigration as one of those issues where Democrats haven’t moved the needle as promised. He declined to say who he will vote for in November.

Immigration is a key issue for Juan Carlos Silen, a 34-year-old Puerto Rican immigration attorney based in East Baltimore. He’s been disappointed by Democrats’ inability to make progress on immigration reform and by how rhetoric about the border has taken priority over making tangible impacts on people’s lives.

November’s decision is a clear and easy one for him, though.

“This is a vote against racism and bigotry, and that means a vote for Kamala Harris,” said Silen. “I’m not saying she’s my preferred candidate, but it’s the only person on the ballot I can vote for against Trump.”

Odette Ramos, a Puerto-Rican American who is Baltimore City’s first elected Latine City Council member, said the Latine population is “not a monolith” and that both parties need to do a better job reaching out to that community.

“It’s hard to put every group in a box — because there will be changes and nuances. It’s a little more challenging. But attitudes are changing in our community and about us,” she said.

The potential of the Latine vote is “enormous,” but some voters, especially the young, feel they are treated as an afterthought, said Ana Valdez, president and CEO of Latino Donor Collaborative Inc.

“The risk for candidates, parties, and movements is that this cohort is more and more outspoken and active,” said Valdez, who is based in Los Angeles. “They care about important issues, and they mobilize. We’ve seen it in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Washington state, Florida, and even in places like Pennsylvania, where the 12% of Latinos have made the difference in some important, very tight recent races.”

Nationally, both parties have seen the role Latines can play — especially in battleground states where Republicans and Democrats have spent millions to court potential voters. Polls showed Trump with stronger-than-expected appeal among Latines even though he launched his 2016 campaign by alleging that Mexico was sending people across the border who were bringing crime and “rapists.”

And although Harris leads Trump among Latine voters, her numbers are the lowest for a Democratic candidate in the past four presidential election cycles.

At least one expert attributes some of the declining Democratic numbers to the results of second and third-generation Americans who may not share the same beliefs as their older immigrant parents and grandparents.

Chuck Rocha, a senior Democratic strategist who helped U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders engage the Hispanic vote during his presidential bids, said Trump is able to attract younger male voters (usually without a college education) because of his name recognition, combined with his messaging about fighting trade deals to keep jobs in America, “draining the swamp” to give more of a voice to Americans, and spending money in the United States instead of overseas.

“The messaging that he uses used to be Democratic party messaging,” Rocha said.

Rocha believes that if Harris loses this election, the Democratic party will need to have a “reckoning” about its ability to speak to younger male voters while also talking about reproductive rights. It’s something that is not being done this election, he says.

In August, Harris’ campaign created a bilingual WhatsApp channel targeting Latine voters, in large part to combat disinformation in both English and Spanish, as there are few effective efforts to combat false information shared bilingually, according to a 2021 Nielsen report.

WhatsApp is a smart medium to use because of its reach, said Jenny Torres, a 30-year-old community organizer based in Baltimore.

It’s largely the platform of choice among immigrant communities because it was one of the first low- to no-cost mediums to communicate with family and friends in their home countries, she said — all it requires is an internet connection and a device.

But it can’t take the place of “intentional engagement,” she said, something she hasn’t seen power brokers do well in Maryland around both national elections and local issues.

“I mean, like real engagement, like, face to face, sit-downs, panelings. Here’s an event tailored for the Latin community, right? Here’s a debate that’s translated in Spanish,” said Torres, who is Peruvian American.

The Baltimore Banner reached out to various Republicans throughout the state for this story. Only one responded.

Del. Kathy Szeliga, a Republican representing District 7A in Baltimore County, touted Trump as “better on the economy and better for the safety of our loved ones, communities, and nation.”

Szeliga, who also mentioned inflation and crime as top issues for voters, said Trump is also better addressing those topics.

There are always ongoing conversations and efforts by Republicans in all communities across our state and nation, she added.

Conflating race and ethnicity within polling has also created confusion over the true scope of the community, said Nancy López, a professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico. She also is the immediate past director and co-founder of the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Justice. Lopez specializes in the intersectionality of the Afro Latine community.

“Does your analysis include the voices of Black Latinas versus mestizos or white Latinas? We have different experiences,” Lopez explained. “We are making invisible those at the margins. They are often left out of that analysis.”

For Torres, education and labor issues top her concerns. She believes parents will vote for whoever they think can deliver better schools for their kids, while workers will vote for the candidate they think will protect their jobs and rights.

She also believes immigration is so much more than the border, and connects with many other systems in often opaque ways.

“Most American citizens don’t understand the immigration system. So, it’s a really broad, complex issue that unfortunately is just dumbed-down to very elitist, offensive, racist language like ‘illegal aliens’ or saying that people are eating cats and dogs,” Torres said, referring to Trump’s false claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, had stolen and eaten their neighbors’ pets.

Despite machismo and conservative strongholds among Catholic, Cuban and Venezuelan communities, Ramos points to the progress made by female politicians throughout Latin America. This year, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo was elected as Mexico’s first female president. Argentina and Puerto Rico have both had women in leadership positions, Ramos added.

“Attitudes are definitely changing in our community — and that is amazing,” she said.

Data reporter Ramsey Archibald contributed to this story.