Exclusive: Florida US Senate candidate launches WhatsApp channel to reach voters

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a former U.S. House Democrat who is currently challenging Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott for the Senate, has launched a new WhatsApp campaign to reach voters and attack the sea of misinformation.

The direct-messaging operation is part of a broader effort to close the gap in a race that has become increasingly tight. Democrats face the daunting task of undoing Republican gains in the state in recent years, especially in an election where former President Trump is expected to boost GOP turnout in the state. But Democrats believe they can move the needle, particularly among Latino voters, using smartphones.

“It was created specifically for Latino voters across the state and is designed to provide them with accurate, fact-based information straight from the source,” Mucarsel-Powell, the only Latino candidate running for U.S. Senate this year, told NPR.

The communication campaign includes two channels on the WhatsApp communication platform – one in English and the other in Spanish.

The effort also coincides with a similar launch by Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, which now has its own bilingual outreach channel to Latino voters. For them, Harris’ campaign said it’s the first of its kind in a presidential election.

The encrypted platform is a free messaging app that is particularly popular among immigrants, especially Latinos, for communicating via text messages and domestic and international calls. As campaigns increasingly look to use the app, they hope their network will grow with voters as updates are shared by users.

Mucarsel-Powell says WhatsApp will allow her to directly reach Florida’s Spanish-speaking community, which is often targeted by misinformation. A Pew Research report found that 46% of Latino Americans use the messaging app, compared with a quarter of Americans. The group found that 23% of black Americans use it, compared with 16% of white Americans.

“It’s very easy to forward, and that’s one of the reasons why there’s so much misinformation, because of that easy feature, that easy forward feature,” Mucarsel-Powell said. “That’s why we wanted to have our own channels to allow our supporters to just forward the contact to their networks across the state.”

Mucarsel-Powell is the first Hispanic Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Florida. And the WhatsApp effort is part of an overall campaign strategy to reach Latino voters who did not vote in previous elections, which includes dozens of campaign events in English and Spanish, as well as ads in both languages.

BOLD PAC, the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, has singled out the Florida Senate race as a key focus for combating disinformation and reaching Latino voters. During the 2020 presidential election, Mucarsel-Powell and others raised alarms among members of Congress about disinformation on WhatsApp and Facebook reaching voters.

Democrats have long argued that Republicans contribute to the spread of disinformation through their campaigns, while Republicans have argued the opposite.

Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign faces a difficult challenge in unseating Scott, a first-term senator who is currently seeking re-election after serving as governor of Florida.

Now the state of Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump, Florida has become largely red in recent years. But Democrats say their voters have been mobilized by Harris’ presidential campaign and national issues, such as abortion access, that will be on the November ballot in Florida.