The Soros philanthropic network dumped massive sums of cash into left-of-center Latino advocacy and political mobilization efforts in 2022, according to recently released disclosures.
The Open Society Policy Center, the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and the Open Society Institute, all arms of the Soros philanthropic network, poured tens of millions of dollars into left-of-center Latino voter mobilization groups and left-wing Latino advocacy organizations in 2022, an election year while buying up Latino media and plotting with Democratic strategists. The multi-million dollar grant deluge came as Democratic support has been declining among Hispanic voters in recent years, suggesting the Soros empire is targeting a key voting block.
The nonprofit Equis Institute and Equis Labs, its 501(c)(4) sister organization, pulled in a combined $35.6 million from Soros’ Foundation to Promote Open Society and Open Society Policy Center. The 2022 grants are a significant increase from the amount of funding Soros’ network allocated the groups in 2021.
Equis Institute was founded in 2019 to “massively increase civic participation among Latinos in this country,” according to its website. The group “seeks to be a resource that develops actionable recommendations for practitioners seeking to engage the Latinx voter.”
Equis Labs, which has greater license to operate politically due to its tax status, produced multiple reports advising Democratic campaigns on how to best appeal to Spanish-speaking or Latino voters, tested the effectiveness of liberal messaging on Hispanics and provided a guide on “counter disinformation” in the Latino community, among other things. The groups, operating in conjunction with one another, aim to mobilize Latinos in the political process.
Hispanic voters have historically favored the Democratic Party, though that longstanding trend appears to be in flux; Democrats won 71% of the Hispanic vote in 2016, but that figure that dropped eight points to 63% in 2020, according to the Democratic data firm Catalist.
Republicans see this decline as evidence that the GOP messaging and agenda is appealing to Hispanics.
“It is no surprise donors like George Soros would be nervous about continuing to lose Hispanic voters cycle after cycle,” Republican Sen. Rick Scott, who represents the heavily-Hispanic Florida, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Today’s Democrat Party is all in for more government control and a socialist agenda. Many Hispanic voters understand the dangers of socialism from first-hand experiences and that doesn’t bode well for Democrats.”
Democratic support among Hispanics declined even further in 2022, with CNN’s polling indicating that Democrats only secured 60% of their vote during the last midterm cycle.
“Hispanic voters are aspirational,” Scott said. “They want to live in a society with a government that values work, faith, family, a quality education, strong borders, independence and self-determination. The Democrats are out of touch with those values and they know that.”
While Democrats are still winning the majority of Latino voters, Carlos Odio, co-founder of Equis Labs, views the decline in Democratic support among Latinos as significant.
“[Hispanics] don’t have a fully formed Democratic identity,” Odio told Vox. “That vote was borrowed, to some extent. You have a segment of the vote that is as swingy as you get in the current moment.”
