BOLD PAC, the campaigning arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus with a long list of endorsed Latino candidates, added Maxwell Alejandro Frost to their commercial budget this week and will release a six-figure, dual-language ad buy featuring his bid for House Representative.

Ads will run in the days leading up to Election Day in competitive districts — including Texas’ 15th and New Mexico’s 2nd — two districts with their own Latino candidates vying for seats. In Florida’s 10th Congressional District, Frost became the Democrat’s latest hotshot candidate, poised to keep the seat blue if turnout is strong.

The English language commercial features Frost in ¡Ya Tu Sabes!, a YouTube series covering progressive politics and issues close to Latino communities. In a seven-minute segment, Frost discusses his activist upbringing at age 15, disinformation, and what his candidacy entails for Gen Z. 

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“What we’re hearing about, especially from our immigrant families who came here from countries where they were escaping their right being taken away from them, they’re starting to see familiar things again,” Frost said of the current U.S. political climate. 

“For me, it’s important that we always talk about these issues,” Frost continued. “The Latino community is impacted — yes, by immigration — but yes, they also want a dignified wage, and yes, they also want their rights, and yes, they also want bodily autonomy.” 

Frost’s assessment of policy issues that matter is seemingly in line with Latino voter temperament. Polling continues to show the economy as a leading concern, toppling crime and immigration, according to data by UnidosUS and Mi Familia Vota.

Abortion made the cut for a top five concern in 2022, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s unilateral decision that struck down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which protected abortion seekers at the federal level. 

Data overwhelmingly showed that Latinos support abortion protections and would opt for a candidate who upheld it. 

On disinformation, Frost said, “the Latino community is a prime community for disinformation.” 

Frost is not off track with that assessment. The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), in tracking commercial patterns ahead of the 2022 midterms, observed a stark increase in the number of Spanish-language disinformation campaigns targeting Latino communities. 

“This is a new phenomenon,” said Arturo Vargas, NALEO’s Executive Director, in a forum following the data results. “We’re trying to see to what extent is the issue of disinformation affecting Latino voters. It is an area of concern for us.” 

NALEO’s efforts to track the spread of lies found that disinformation campaigns targeted abortion and election fraud, primarily. 

On election fraud, according to Vargas and the NALEO poll, 70% of the surveyed heard there was widespread election tampering and that Donald Trump, former Republican president, was the true winner — 40% answered they know the claim to be false, but 38% believe it to be true. 

Frost, during the interview, recalled his abuela, mother, and aunt, who traveled to the U.S. during the Freedom Flights, a period of airborne refugee resettlement from Cuba to Miami, described as the "largest airborne refugee operation in American history."

“There’s a whole history of how the right-wing used conservative Spanish radio to indoctrinate people into a specific way of thinking,” Frost said. “We still see that to this day.”

Spanish-language misinformation had long flourished after the 2020 presidential elections when former Republican president Donald Trump injected executive doubt over the country’s integrity to count lawfully cast ballots. 

As the midterms approach, heightened efforts to spread misinformation have again taken center stage. Shamaine Daniels, a Pennsylvania House candidate, told AL DÍA she observed traces of outlandish claims.

In a Whatsapp group, Daniels noted a message that claimed Democrats supported abortion 28 days after birth. 

“I’ve heard from other immigrant communities that their elders are also getting weird messages, and they just seem to really target based on the ethnicities. Republicans are really smart in that way,” Daniels, a Democrat, noted. 

Bob Menéndez, a Latino U.S. Senator, told Axios in February that their committee would focus on reigning in misinformation claims online as Latinos increasingly turn to social media channels to obtain the latest. 

"Every week that goes by without adequate action by these companies places our communities at greater risk of being exposed to misinformation," Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) told Axios in an interview.

Frost told ¡Ya tu sabes! Of his antidote: speaking Spanish. 

“As Democrats, it’s important to meet people where they’re at. We talk to people in their language, in their native tongue,” he said. 

At the tail end of the segment, Frost expressed hope for significant Gen-Z turnout overall. “My message to young voters is, number one, vote.” 

“Voting alone won’t solve everything, it won’t save everything. But that’s ok, we need to use every tool in our toolbox.” 

Frost faired well in the primaries, but it remains to be seen whether the Gen Z candidate can mobilize younger voters at the polls in November. Nonetheless, Frost has outspent his Republican opponent, Calvin Wimbish, as of the latest October spending report. 

He raised $2.5 million against his opponent’s $230,000.