McAllen, Texas — Two Groups Launch Latino Voter Turnout Drive

In Edinburg, Texas, two of the nation's largest Latino advocacy organizations began a six-figure get-out-the-vote operation this week aimed at Rio Grande Valley residents who did not cast ballots in 2024, according to plans shared first with NBC News.

The Voto Latino Foundation and the Hispanic Federation estimate that nearly 316,000 Latinos eligible to vote in the Valley did not participate in the 2024 election, and that close to 500,000 Texas Latinos have turned 18 and become newly eligible in the two years since, according to the groups' plans.

Who Is Running the Rio Grande Valley Turnout Effort?

The operation is a joint project of the Voto Latino Foundation and the Hispanic Federation, two organizations that work on Latino civic engagement nationally. The groups are spending six figures specifically on the Rio Grande Valley campaign, NBC News reported. Frankie Miranda, president and CEO of the Hispanic Federation, said the strategy centers on voter education and direct contact with residents.

"When we do this right, we are going to see a correlation in the participation of Latinos on Election Day," Miranda said.

Why Is the Rio Grande Valley a Focus for Organizers?

The Valley carries particular weight for both parties after 2024, when a majority of Latino voters there backed Donald Trump, according to NBC News — a shift from the region's longtime Democratic lean. Since that election, the report notes, prominent figures in the area have come out against Trump administration policies, including its economic agenda and its approach to deportation enforcement.

Polling and interviews cited by NBC News found Latino voters broadly frustrated over the cost of living and immigration enforcement operations. Whether that frustration translates into turnout, the report said, remains an open question organizers are trying to answer with direct outreach rather than assumption.

What Will the Town Hall and Rally Look Like?

Organizers have built a short sequence of public events into the campaign. On Saturday, the groups will hold a community town hall in Edinburg called "Juntos en el 956," where staff will help residents make concrete plans to vote and answer questions about the process. Claudia Lopez, a social media personality who covers South Texas politics, will moderate.

"When we do this right, we are going to see a correlation in the participation of Latinos on Election Day." — Frankie Miranda, Hispanic Federation

A second, televised town hall is planned in partnership with Telemundo, and the groups are also preparing an end-of-month rally to promote turnout, according to the plans shared with NBC News.

What Are Organizers Telling Voters About Registration?

Miranda said the campaign's door-to-door and event-based conversations will push two specific actions: voting early where possible, and confirming that registration records remain intact for anyone already on the rolls.

"In many places, there have been attempts to try to push people out of the voter rolls," Miranda said, according to NBC News, framing registration checks as a precaution rather than an accusation tied to any single jurisdiction.

What Happens Next Before the November Election?

The campaign's public calendar, as described to NBC News, runs on a short timeline:

• This week — Voto Latino Foundation and Hispanic Federation formally launch the six-figure Rio Grande Valley turnout operation.
• Saturday — "Juntos en el 956" community town hall in Edinburg, moderated by Claudia Lopez.
• Later in October — A second town hall airs in partnership with Telemundo.
• End of October — A rally focused on voter turnout is planned.
• November — Election Day, the point against which organizers will measure whether the roughly 316,000 non-voting Latinos identified from 2024, plus an estimated 500,000 newly eligible young voters, show up.

Neither organization has released a numeric turnout target for the Valley, and NBC News did not report one. The report instead frames the effort as a test of whether direct, localized contact — town halls, a televised forum, and a rally — can move a bloc of voters whose 2024 behavior surprised strategists in both parties and whose next move remains, in Miranda's words, something organizers intend to find out by talking to people directly rather than relying on past turnout patterns.