Congressman Rubén Gallego, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Arizona, has made history by raising more money in the first fundraising quarter than any other Latino Democrat in history, writes senior adviser Chuck Rocha.

This week’s wrap-up comes to you from the cozy confines of quarantine, as senior editor Hector Luis Alamo has managed to catch COVID for only the second time this year.

The first of a weekly column by senior editor Hector Luis Alamo in which he gives an overview of the most interesting and important things he’s read, seen, or heard during the past week, providing his thoughts on them.

Over the past decade, Latinos in Arizona responded to a tough crackdown on immigrants by building a turnout machine that helped propel Democrats to power, turning a longtime Republican stronghold into one of the most competitive states. The strength of that movement will be tested in Tuesday’s election, when Democrats are counting on strong support from Latinos to help them overcome concerns about the economy.

Nevada is the third most diverse state in the country, with a nearly 30 percent Latino population. It is the only state currently in the running with a significant amount of Latino voters, who in recent years have become the second largest voting bloc by ethnicity in the country.

Latinos make up a small percentage of Congress, a little over eight percent. Of the 45 Latinos currently serving in Congress, 18 (40 percent) represent states where abortion is banned, restricted, or expected to have restrictions soon

The Puerto Rico Status Act brings together two competing bills in the House: the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act and the Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act. Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s in it.

Following a press conference on Thursday, members of the House negotiating team behind a potential consensus bill on Puerto Rico’s status released what is likely a messaging bill meant to act as a framework for further negotiations and their outcome.

Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) and Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner, Jenniffer González Colón, tell Latino Rebels that, despite their opposing perspectives on Puerto Rico’s status question, there are at least two areas of common ground driving the negotiations on a consensus bill.

A consensus bill to determine the future of Puerto Rico’s status is imminent, Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL) said, but sources close to the matter tell Latino Rebels that no draft has been circulated to the key stakeholders in the process and that the tense negotiations over the bill’s language have hit a series of dead ends.

A single staffer in House Majority Whip Steny Hoyer’s (D-MD) office has been tasked with the seemingly impossible job of combining an all-or-nothing proposition for statehood with an open-ended process for self-determination.

A year after being re-introduced in the House and Senate, a Puerto Rico self-determination bill appears ready to die on the vine again in the current Congress.

Ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union Address on Tuesday evening, Latino Rebels asked 14 senators whether they supported statehood for Puerto Rico, a U.S. colonial possession since the 1800s.

On Saturday, Rafael “Tatito” Hernández Montañez, speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, sent a letter to Rep. Raúl Grijalva, chair of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, asking him to endorse the self-determination bill currently before the committee.

Support is growing in Congress for the “Day Without Immigrants” protest planned for Monday, February 14. The rationale behind the protest led by TikTok star Carlos Eduardo Espina is that immigrant labor underwrites Valentine’s Day every year.

Last week, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus went public with letters sent on January 14 to the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok “respectfully requesting a meeting” to discuss Spanish-language misinformation on their platforms.

Rep. Gosar is a white supremacist and a male member of a political party that’s now dominated by white supremacists, a party whose core agenda now has almost nothing to do with so-called traditional Republican values.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) told Latino Rebels on Monday that they support an investigation into sexual harassment allegations of Capitol custodial staff that were published in a 2019 report by the Architect of the Capitol’s Office of Inspector General (OIG).

Yes, it’s complicated. It always has been.

“I have no doubt this bill get a vote on the floor of the House when the time comes. In the case of the Senate, I do admit that the going will be tougher, but we’ll fight, we’ll fight the fight,” Pierluisi said.

On Thursday, the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 was introduced to both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is the lead Senate sponsor, while Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) is the lead House sponsor.