Donald Trump

Tarrant County Political Parties Working to Draw Hispanic Vote

The race for the White House is in the final stretch. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are trying to rally voters in key battleground states, while everyone else is trying to predict what's going to happen on Tuesday.

That includes a lot of talk about the significance of Hispanic voter turnout and what it could mean for the election. The Latino community has turned out in record numbers for early voting in several key states, and Democratic strategists believe that's giving Clinton a boost.

In North Texas both parties are reaching out to Latino voters. Inside the Tarrant County Republican Headquarters Monday, there were calls going out in Spanish as well as English.

The Tarrant County Republican Party chairman told NBC 5 this is a priority for the party, and it begins with drawing more Hispanic candidates to run on the Republican ticket. As that happens, he says, those candidates then appeal to, and connect with, the Latino community more.

The same is happening on the Democratic side, where phone banks were up and running all day Monday with bilingual volunteers urging the Hispanic community to vote.

Democratic organizers say their efforts, and some of the heated rhetoric Donald Trump has pointed at the Hispanic community, has more voters motivated.

In fact, in Tarrant County, more Latinos voted in the Democratic primary this year than turned out for the entire midterm general election of 2014.

"I just see a lot more people becoming involved. A lot of Hispanic people are becoming more involved, knowing their candidates," said Democratic volunteer Irwin Mendoza. "It's exciting, yes, knowing that my voice is going to be heard and it affects major elections."

The Tarrant County Elections Office doesn't track voter turnout based on race or ethnic group, and Tarrant County Republicans don't have any estimates on their side of the ballot yet.

But the Tarrant County Republican Party is looking ahead past this election, too. They've created an outreach committee for young voters and minorities, and starting in January, they'll be offering citizenship classes, at the party headquarters in Northeast Fort Worth.

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