Meet Michael Ruiz: He’s increasing turnout and changing the narrative about Arizona’s Latino voters

Michael Ruiz is so determined to ensure the voices of his Latino community are heard in the 2024 election that he is leading efforts to knock on a million doors to get people registered to vote, create a voting plan and cast their ballot.

“If they want to see a positive change in their communities, the way they can impact their communities will be by voting, because it’s not just a presidential election,” Ruiz says about the outreach effort. “There’s so many other elections, there are many races on that ballot that will impact them directly and the community as well.”

Ruiz is the civic engagement director in Arizona for Mi Familia Vota, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing “the political priorities of the Latino community by mobilizing Latino power through year-round voter activation and investment in local infrastructure.”

In August, Mi Familia Vota announced their 1 Million Door Knock Campaign, a strategy to ignite Arizona voter turnout. The get-out-the-vote efforts will feature 1 million door knocks, 1 million text messages, and 500,00 phone calls, with a focus on reaching voters from traditionally marginalized communities, according to a news release.

This Q&A is part of Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces.

Ruiz came with his parents to the United States from México when he was a year old. He spent part of his childhood in Los Angeles and then moved to Phoenix.

Ruiz got a journalism degree from Arizona State University and worked as a bilingual news reporter in central and northern California reporting on community organizations tied to immigrant communities. He did stories about the Dolores Huerta Foundation, the United Farm Workers Foundations, the Cesar Chavez Foundation and ACLU. Throughout his reporting he felt inspired by the work these organizations were doing to educate and advocate for their community.

He realized that there was a connection between the issues he was covering — workers rights, public health, natural disaster and immigration — and it was politics, specifically voting.

So in 2022, he solidified his commitment to advocacy by joining Mi Familia Vota.

Ruiz says he doesn’t see any challenges with the 1 Million Door Knock Campaign.

“I see en contrario ,” he says, braiding his words with two languages. (In English: The opposite). “I think we’ve been very blessed to have a community that is very responsive to us, that will see our logo or Mi Familia Vota T-shirt, and they know us already from so many years that they open the door and they love engaging in these conversations.”

More than 855,000 Latinos are expected to cast ballots in Arizona in this election, according to NALEO Education Fund . The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials is a nonpartisan leadership organization.

Arizona Luminaria spoke with Ruiz about the Latino vote and the initiatives of Mi Familia Vota to ensure their voices are heard. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Can you talk about how important the Latino vote is in the upcoming election?

The Latino vote is extremely important in this election. Nearly one in four voters in Arizona will be Latino.

Latinos in Arizona have the power to take on the key political issues that impact our lives and our families, including all these issues that we’ve been hearing from our community, like immigration, having immigration reform, the economy is a big issue, climate justice, health is also one of them.

The Latino vote is very important in Arizona and also in the country.

Could you talk about your role as the Civic Engagement Director of Mi Familia Vota and how that plays a part in getting the Latino Vote out in Arizona?

I led a voter registration campaign with the goal of registering over 16,500 Arizonans. This happened in two counties, Maricopa and in Pima, with the efforts of our canvassers. And I’m so excited to share with you that we have registered so far 12,000 individuals. And I am really positive that we’re going to be more than 16,500 before the election.

And it’s just been an honor to work with such a passionate team of volunteers and canvassers, and just uniting our efforts to mobilize voters.

I also oversee our communications department, where I make sure that we amplify our efforts and keep the community informed with the essential information that they need.

We know that Arizona is a battleground state. We know that every voice matters. And having this position as the civic engagement director, I am committed to ensuring that every Arizonan has the chance to be heard.

In 2020, we saw Latinos show up to the polls in record numbers all over the country, especially here in Arizona. Are you seeing Latinos feeling motivated to show up again to the polls, as they did in 2020?

Yes, we do! When we talk to our voters, they’re so excited about this election. When we talk to them, they want to be active. They want to participate. They want their voice to be counted.

We do see a huge excitement through our Latino voters and through not just our Latino voters, for our BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) communities, we see that excitement.

When I’ve been out there in the field with the canvassers, like people that open the doors they’re happy to see us outside of their homes. They offer us water because, obviously, the extreme heat. They’re happy to see that we’re excited about also informing them about elections and they’re excited also about sharing their points of view.

The mission of the organization, building Latino political power, what does that look like in Arizona? But also, what does that mean to you?

Mi Familia Vota is an organization that has been in the communities for over 20 years. And it has so much trust in our communities.

And even growing up, I would hear about Mi Familia Vota. It has been a driving force nationally in advancing voter education through various workshops and trainings, and engaging, mobilizing Latinos across the age economic and political spectrum to build Latino political power through our targeted advocacy efforts.

So we have so many workshops and so many trainings. One of them that comes to mind is our efforts to do citizenship work. We just finished a campaign where at least 280 people were able to become citizens. And the reason why we decided to name that campaign 280 was because we know that elections are very close in Arizona. We saw that recently with the race of the Arizona Attorney General, and it was actually 280 votes that made the difference. So our goal was to help 280 residents become U.S. citizens. This group of people could make a huge difference in a state race.

It’s amazing how each vote counts, and letting people know, letting our community know that their vote counts, and they could be, it could be the decisive vote, right? So it empowers.

And I think that goes back to my childhood growing up. When I was growing up, I would hear this a lot on the news that the Latino vote didn’t matter. Like I would hear politicians say that they didn’t care for the Latino vote and they would say this publicly.  And that made me really upset and really, really frustrated. And that has been in the back of my mind every time that I’m talking about my work. I think about how — thank God — we have seen that change already, that drastic change now.

We see that politicians know that Latino vote is very important. In order for them to win, they have to talk to our Latino community.

Are there any challenges that you see coming with the initiative to knock on 1 million doors?

We’re letting them know about the voting process. There’s a lot of people in the community who are not really familiar with the voting process. Also we’re reminding them about the electoral deadlines.

We’re talking to them about how their vote can have an effect on their communities.

And then also we’re creating a voting plan, whether a person is voting by mail or in person, we’re talking to them about it.

I don’t see any challenges. I see en contrario (the opposite). I think we’ve been very blessed to have a community that is very responsive to us, that will see our logo or Mi Familia Vota T-shirt, and they know us already from so many years that they open the door and they love engaging in these conversations.

There’s exceptions. There’s people that sometimes they’re not really convinced about their vote counting. And that’s where Mi Familia Vota is there to talk to them about the importance of voting and to let them know how important it is, and to remind them about how the voting process works. Also, you know, creating a voting plan for them. And then also talking about certain issues.

If they want to see a positive change in their communities, the way they can impact their communities will be by voting, because it’s not just a presidential election. There’s so many other elections, there are many races on that ballot that will impact them directly and the community as well.

There will be a new set of voters this upcoming election who are turning 18. It’s one of the highest within the Latino communities. Can you talk about the efforts that Mi Familia Vota is doing to make sure that those voters get to the polls?

Yes, we’re actually visiting colleges. We’re visiting universities to talk to them, to get into getting them registered. And also we do have youth workshops, youth advocacy throughout the year. So it’s not only an effort that we do during elections. This is a year-round effort that Mi Familia Vota does.

It’s not just, oh, it’s a presidential election coming up. Let’s talk to our youth, right? Or, let’s talk to our neighbors, our communities, right? We do this year round. That’s something que nos hace diferente en la comunidad que trabajamos con ella todo el año (that makes us different in the community that we work with them year round.)

We do youth summits in Pima and Maricopa. Huge youth summits where we talk about certain issues like environmental justice that could be of interest to them. There’s also the possibility in a few summits where we have those opportunities for them to register to vote, as well as talk about the importance of voting.

What motivates you to get the Latino vote out in Arizona, especially for the upcoming election?

A mi lo que me motiva es que todas las personas en nuestra comunidad sepan la importancia de su voto. Que sepa que su voto cuenta y que su voto es su voz. (What motivates me is that everyone in our community knows the importance of their vote. That their vote counts and that their vote is their voice.)

Y lo que me apasiona es cuando cambiamos el pensamiento de las personas y logramos que ellos entiendan esa importancia. (And what makes me feel passionate is when we change someone’s mind and achieve that they understand that importance.)

Like when a canvasser comes to the office and tells me that this is something that happened, it makes me really proud of the work that I’m doing, and kind of gives me the energy to keep going and that we’re making a huge difference in our community.

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