The January 6 insurrection could be a sore point between Latino voters and Donald Trump

As Vice President Kamala Harris fights to keep her lead among Latino voters as wide as possible, the campaign believes it has found a powerful message: former President Donald Trump's role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Last week, Harris' campaign released two television ads featuring former Capitol Police officer Aquilino Gonell talking about fighting Donald Trump's mob on January 6, 2021.

“An out-of-control president trying to steal an election he lost by millions of votes,” Gonell says in a spot released Friday that shows images and videos of the rioters attacking the Capitol.

“I fought and almost died that day supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States, and I would do it again because that is the oath I took,” Gonell says. “So help me, God.”

In a second ad unveiled on Wednesday, featuring both English And Spanish versionsGonell says he defended the Capitol: “But now we all have to defend democracy with our voices.”

The Harris campaign believes Trump's insurrection represents a key vulnerability for the former president with Latino voters and that Gonell, who was born in the Dominican Republic before becoming an American citizen, an Iraq war veteran and a Capitol Police officer, is an excellent messenger this topic is. The campaign said the ad would air in battleground states on high-viewership programming in markets that reach Latino voters, including during World Series games and on Univision and Telemundo.

Latino voters overwhelmingly favor Harris, but polls suggest Trump has had some success in cracking their coalition, with Latinos supporting Harris constantly eroding compared to previous Democratic presidential candidates. Extensive polling of Latino voters suggests Trump may make only modest gains with the group, rather than the significant gains he made from 2016 to 2020.

In a memo accompanying the initial Gonell ad, the Harris campaign said its internal polling suggested the emphasis on Jan. 6 was “among the most compelling messages” to Latino voters.

Public polls confirm the claim that Latino voters dislike Trump's January 6 insurrection. In one August survey of 3,000 Latino voters by UnidosUSa civil rights advocacy group, 49% of respondents said a candidate who participated in or supported the Capitol riots would be a “deal breaker.” No other political position was nearly as unpopular, not even defunding police or opposing a higher minimum wage.

“It's significant that it would be a dealbreaker for 49%, considering that wallet issues are the top priority for Latino voters right now,” Clarissa Martinez De Castro, vice president of the Latino Vote Initiative at UnidosUS, said in an interview. “It remains critical to ensure voters have accurate information about the candidates to make their decisions on this and other issues.”

The UnidosUS poll found that voters are most concerned about inflation, jobs and affordable housing. Only 3% of voters said “democracy” or voting rights were the most important issues.

In focus groups, a campaign official said, Latino voters recoiled from images of Trump supporters attacking the Capitol, a siege that injured dozens of police officers, including Gonell.

“We would show some of the pictures and they would be disgusted,” the official said. “And even if they had just been undecided Latino men talking about Trump being a good businessman, we would be talking about January 6th and they would just be disgusted with him, disgusted.”

During a town hall event organized by Univision last week, a former Republican voter named Ramiro Gonzalez called on Trump to win back his vote, saying Trump's behavior was “disturbing.” Gonzalez cited “what happened on January 6 and the fact that you waited so long to take action while your supporters were attacking the Capitol.” Witnesses said Trump watched the insurrection on television in the White House dining room.

Trump apologized for the riot and said his supporters believed the election was rigged and they did nothing wrong. Hundreds of people have been charged with assaulting or obstructing officers; Trump has said he would consider pardoning them all.

“They thought the election was a rigged election and that’s why they came. Some of these people went to the Capitol, I said, peacefully and patriotically, doing nothing wrong at all. “Nothing wrong,” Trump told Gonzalez before calling Jan. 6 “the day of love.”

Afterwards, Gonzalez said he wouldn't vote for Trump.