The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) announced a record fundraising haul for March and for the 1st quarter of 2022:

The Senate Republicans’ campaign arm raised $43 million during the first quarter of 2022, breaking its fundraising records as it gears up for an aggressive midterm cycle, Axios has learned…

• The quarterly total brings the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s overall cash on hand to $44.1 million — the highest in its history.
• It’s also the most the NRSC has raised during any previous March or first quarter, the committee told Axios.

NRSC chairman Sen. Rick Scott made the announcement yesterday in a meeting with Senate Republicans. He listed some of the Senate seats the GOP will be targeting.

“Senate Republicans have the war chest and the enthusiasm to oust radical Senate Democrats in November,” Scott said. “Our team breaks records every month and that’s because the American people are sick and tired of the failed policies pushed by Joe Biden and rubber-stamped by Democrats like Mark Kelly, Catherine Cortez Masto, Maggie Hassan, Raphael Warnock, and Michael Bennet. Hardworking families cannot afford a Democrat majority any longer.”

While Scott’s statement stayed on offense, listing Democratic Senators in Arizona, Nevada, New Hampshire, Georgia and Colorado that the NRSC will target in 2022, a share will go toward defense as well. Much of the money will likely be spent in Florida, where GOP Sen. Marco Rubio is defending his seat from a well-funded challenge by Democratic Rep. Val Demings.

Perhaps what’s most interesting is how the NRSC plans to target some of those Democrats. CBS News reports some of the money will be spent on outreach to Latino voters. The new initiative is called “Vamos.”

The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s (NRSC) new “Vamos” initiative, first shared with CBS News, will target 2022 races in the battlegrounds of Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin. Latino voters make up at least 20% of the electorate in Arizona, Nevada and Florida.

“Vamos” will focus on field operations such as door knocking, canvassing and other targeted programming. And about 20 NRSC staffers will be deployed to these nine battleground states…

“The most important thing to me that Republicans need to do is get out and talk to Hispanics across the country and listen to them,” Scott said. “And don’t do it in the last four weeks of a race, but do it your entire race. And you’ll hear what they care about.”

There have been a series of reports this year suggesting that the GOP is gaining ground with Latino voters, not just in Florida but in Texas as well. CNN recently published a story saying that Biden was +23 with Hispanic voters in 2020 but more recent polls suggest he’s closer to +17 now. That’s still a big margin but it’s also a 6 point drop in support.

So compared with 2020, Biden is doing worse with Hispanics relative to how he is doing with voters overall. That’s notable given that earlier in his presidency, Biden was doing significantly better among Hispanics relative to how he was doing overall and compared with how he did in 2020.

With a little effort could that 6 point drop become a 10 or 12 point drop? Polls show that Latino voters top concern is the economy and that’s not a subject where Democrats are doing particularly well right now thanks to concern about lingering inflation. That was backed up by a recent survey published by Axios:

The survey does not show a mass defection to the Republican Party. But two trends since our last survey in December are hurting President Biden and his party: waning intention to vote in the midterms and a new GOP advantage on which party is better for the economy. …

What they’re saying: “Getting prices under control is very clearly the number one priority for the majority of Hispanics and Latinos, and it underscores the challenges Biden is facing now,” said Ipsos pollster and senior vice president Chris Jackson.

All of that to say, the NRSC are making a smart move to invest some of that record fund-raising cash into winning over Latino voters because if they can persuade move Latinos to support the GOP over the Democrats that could be a real game-changer this fall.