Nation's oldest and largest Latino civil rights group endorsing Harris

The nation's oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), will do something it has not done since its founding in 1929 — it will endorse a presidential candidate, CBS News has learned.

The organization's political arm, the LULAC Adelante PAC, will endorse Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday.

The endorsement comes with Harris set to hold rallies in Glendale, Arizona on Friday and Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday. They are two critical battleground states with large Latino populations.

"We are proud to endorse Kamala Harris and Tim Walz because of the real issues facing Latino communities and all Americans across the nation; we can trust them to do what is right for our community and the country," said Domingo Garcia, the LULAC Adelante PAC chairman and a past LULAC president.

Members of the PAC's board will join Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, to formally announce the endorsement ahead of the campaign's Nevada rally on Saturday.

"Throughout her career, Harris has demonstrated a commitment to justice, equality, and inclusivity — values that resonate deeply with the Latino community and will move our country forward in the right direction," the PAC said in a statement.

A recent CBS News poll indicates that boosts in Democratic excitement have helped Harris reset the 2024 race against former President Donald Trump. Harris has a 1-point edge nationally and Harris and Trump are tied across battleground states. President Biden was down 5 points nationally when he left the race .

The Harris-Walz campaign is looking to capitalize on the momentum and turn the excitement into votes, in part, by courting Latino voters. In its most recent effort, the campaign released its first ad targeting Latinos. The ad, "Determination," is set to run across battleground states.

"As the daughter of an immigrant mother, like our community, Vice President Harris knows the power of determination. It's why throughout her life she's taken on violent criminals, big banks, and greedy corporations — and won," said Kevin Munoz, a Harris-Walz senior spokesperson.

"Vice President Harris will use that same determination to beat Donald Trump, who is proudly running on an anti-Latino platform that demonizes immigrants, raises costs and would make our communities less safe."

Recent polls showed that Mr. Biden lost support to Trump among Latinos soon after his disastrous debate against Trump in Atlanta in June and prior to Mr. Biden stepping down from the Democratic ticket . A Pew Research poll among Latino voters in July showed Mr. Biden and Trump tied at 36%. In 2020, 61% of Latino voters supported Mr. Biden while Trump received 36%.

More than 36.2 million Latinos will be eligible to cast ballots for president this year, the highest in electoral history, according to Pew.

In a race that is likely to be defined by slim margins in battleground states, Arizona and Nevada will play critical roles in the path to the White House for Harris or Trump.

Nearly one in four voters in Arizona is Latino. In 2020, Mr. Biden won by fewer than 10,000 votes. Latinos represent nearly 22% of the electorate in Nevada, a state Mr. Biden won in 2020 by fewer than 34,000 votes.

According to a CBS News poll , in Arizona, Harris and Trump are tied with 49% support from likely voters. In Nevada, Harris is at 50% and Trump at 48%.

To appeal to Latino voters beyond its endorsement, LULAC has a formidable grassroots operation in key battleground states — not just the ones in the Southwest, a senior source in the organization tells CBS News. The source pointed to other swing states with growing Latino populations such as Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

"Vice President Harris has proven herself a stalwart ally and advocate of the Latino community throughout her career and is the right choice for the continued prosperity of Latinos in the United States and the future of our country, " Garcia said.

"The politics of hate mongering and scapegoating Latinos and immigrants must be stopped!" Garcia added, an indirect hit at Trump and Republicans.

The Trump campaign has targeted its efforts to appeal to Latino voters and believes it has potential for growth among Hispanic males, especially in traditionally bluer states like Nevada.

The expectation is not that they would win a majority of Latino voters but pull enough off the margins to win those key states.

While Latino voters have favored Democratic candidates in presidential elections for many decades, the margin of support has varied. In 2020, 61% of Latino voters opted for Joe Biden, while 36% voted for Donald Trump, a narrower margin than the one in 2016 between Hillary Clinton and Trump.