When I speak with Maca Casado – the Coalitions Media Director of the Harris-Walz campaign, where she also runs the Hispanic media operation – it’s exactly 49 days away from the election. That means her days are filled top to bottom with outreach, media appearances, travel, and more as she “tries to think of the best ways to reach the communities who are going to bring Harris to the White House,” she tells me.
Supporting Vice President Kamala Harris in her historic run for president means that Casado and her team are trying to think of “unprecedented” ways to “talk to the community,” she says. That has included creating a WhatsApp group for Latine voters and spending millions to ensure the team is running a “culturally competent” campaign.
“It’s not the same to talk to a Puerto Rican in Pennsylvania and to a Mexican American in Nevada,” Casado says. “So we’re making sure we’re doing competent work to reach communities with their own accents, their own concerns. I’m sure you’ve heard 1,000 times that we’re not a monolith.”
Casado, who is originally from Venezuela, came to the United States in 2014 and got involved in politics in 2016, when she learned Donald Trump was running for president. Her work since – including a stint as a press secretary for Rep. Donna Shalala’s 2018 campaign and, most recently, the Hispanic Media Director at the Democratic National Convention – has been fueled by a fundamental love of the United States and a conviction that those in power shape how we experience this country.
“I fled a dictatorship, I always knew I wanted to build a family at some point, be a mom at some point. I wanted to be in a free country, in a country with opportunities, with a chance to succeed, not only survive,” she says. “And it was really, really hard for me to leave Venezuela with the situation over there, but I really felt that I needed to do this to accomplish what I wanted, to be able to express myself and to be who I wanted to be.”
We spoke to Casado about her journey in politics, the issues that matter most to Latine voters, and what it’s been like to work personally with Harris.
PS: How did you get involved in politics?
Maca Casado: I got involved in politics basically because of Donald Trump, to be completely honest. When I started hearing he was going to run for president, I just couldn’t believe it. And then he was actually running against Hillary Clinton. And when I see Donald Trump, I see an authoritarian leader. I see someone like Hugo Chávez; I know a dictator when I see one. I was right. Now he’s telling us that he wants to be a dictator on day 1 and use the Department of Justice to persecute his enemies. So I basically just showed up in Hillary Clinton’s office in Miami in 2016 to volunteer; I was like, I want to help. That’s how this started. I started giving my background in journalism and that Spanish was my first language and that it’s important to reach Latino voters in Spanish. So they gave me a fellowship, and I did 2016 in Miami as my first presidential election in the United States.
And the result – I remember it was a really, really awful day. I felt that my new home was in a new phase and that we needed to fight more than ever. I decided to stay involved in politics after 2016. Donald Trump despises Latino people and he’s telling us that every day. This is deeply personal to me. I already lost one country. I’m a mom in this country, I have my little American boy, and this is about his future and the future of the people of my community. Donald Trump despises Latino people, and he’s telling us that every day – he says we poison the blood of the nation, that we’re criminals and rapists, and now we eat animals. That’s how he feels about us, and there’s too much at stake in this election and for my community.
PS: As you’ve been on the campaign trail, who’s one voter you’ve met who’s stuck with you?
MC: When Roe was overturned, people were a little skeptical about Latinos and abortion – Latinos, we tend to be a little conservative, the religious piece is there. But the reality is that abortion was one of the mobilizing issues for Latinos during the midterms, and the hard and difficult truth is that 6 million Latinas of reproductive age are living in states where abortion is banned.
I just met this couple in one of the battleground states and she was sharing her story on why she’s still in this fight, and that’s something I tend to ask: why are you here, and why are you fighting for this? She basically shared this story of how she almost bled to death waiting for care. She didn’t have the resources to travel to another state; she was undocumented, so she couldn’t go anywhere, and she almost died waiting to receive the care she really needed after a spontaneous miscarriage. I basically cried with her. She couldn’t speak English and she was telling me how she couldn’t speak to the doctor about what she was feeling. And it was just one example of the many things that my community has to deal with every day with all the barriers, the language barriers. It’s so hard.
PS: How do you balance your work and family life?
MC: My son Santiago is 5 years old, and we moved to Wilmington, DE, to do this work. He’s on board, he understands how important it is. He’s definitely 100 percent aware of the work we’re doing. My husband is extremely supportive, and I have an amazing nanny. I try to dedicate 10 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the evening, of being really present for my son, like putting my phone and computer away and being there for him, playing with him, asking him how school was. But my family understands what this is about, and they understand what is at stake and that we are doing this together.
PS: What’s your message to Latine voters ahead of the election?
MC: The economic piece is key of course, and everything the vice president is proposing will really impact the community. Latinos tend to be entrepreneurs, it’s a really important issue for us. But also the gun safety piece is key for the community, especially after the Uvalde shooting. And reproductive rights, of course, is really a top issue for young Latinos, Latinas, across the country.
She’ll keep fighting to keep families together.
Kamala Harris has the skillset to do two really important things on the immigration issue. The first is securing our border, that’s a priority. President Biden has been working on it, they brokered this border deal that Trump tanked twice, and Vice President Harris has said, “If I become president, I’ll sign this.” And she is really fighting to keep families together. Keeping families together is a No. 1 issue, and she’ll keep fighting to keep families together, for Dreamers, for those people who have been here for many, many years who have earned their pathway to citizenship.
PS: Working with Harris personally, what’s something that you think that voters might not know about her?
MC: How much she cares about understanding and honoring the communities that she’s speaking to. She really cares.
Lena Felton is the senior director of features and special content at PS, where she oversees feature stories, special projects, and our identity content. Previously, she was an editor at The Washington Post, where she led a team covering issues of gender and identity.
