Jacob Ogles
House Republicans have launched a Spanish language ad campaign attacking U.S. Rep. Darren Soto. The digital effort shows the growing importance of turning Latino voters away from Democrats.
Internet ads, paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), call out Soto’s recent vote against making permanent tax cuts passed in President Donald Trump’s first term.
The ads state: “Darren Soto votó a favor del más grande aumento de impuestos.” Translated into English, that reads that Soto voted for the largest tax increase in generations.
“Latino voters are turning away from Democrat Darren Soto, who just voted for the largest tax hike in generations, hurting working families in Florida,” said NRCC spokesperson Maureen O’Toole. “The NRCC will make sure Floridians don’t forget how he betrayed the Latino communities.”
The NRCC launched the campaign as part of Spanish-language efforts in eight districts across the country, according to Voz. Soto is one of two Democratic U.S. Representatives targeted by the House Republicans’ political arm this cycle, and a look at the demographic makeup of the district signals why he’s getting the multilingual treatment.
A Puerto Rican American himself, Soto represents Florida’s 9th Congressional District, which was redrawn as a minority access seat in the 2022 redistricting process. When Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a new congressional map, just over 50% of voting age residents of the district were Hispanic. Census projections suggest the percentage has grown larger since, to about 53.4% as of the most recent estimates.
Meanwhile, Trump and other Republicans made significant inroads among Hispanic voters in 2024, including in Florida.
Thanks to long-rooted Republican support in South Florida’s Cuban American community, the GOP already controls three majority Hispanic seats in the Miami area. But Soto’s district at one point seemed off the table due to demographics.
Of course, even as Trump performed well with Hispanic voters last year, including in Osceola County in CD 9, Soto outperformed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris by 10 points in his district.
