Fuse teamed up Voto Latino to launch a “Crash the Parties” initiative in search of two aspiring, millennial Latino reporters to cover the Republican and Democratic National Conventions in July.
Hopeful reporters from ages 18-34 submitted a 1-minute video explaining why they want to report from the conventions or attended casting calls in Los Angeles on May 6 or in New York on May 9.
From May 16 through May 31 the public voted for the top ten candidates. Expert judges would then go through their selection process from June 1 through the 10th.
The two winners selected would be announced during the Voto Latino Power Summit Conference on June 17.
Some of the judges include Rachel Maddow, MSNBC host of “The Rachel Maddow Show, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Jose Antonio Vargas and former White House Director of Hispanic Media Katherine Vargas.
Alejandra Campoverdi, the current Director of Multicultural Content at the Los Angeles Times and former White House Deputy Director of Hispanic Media, is also one of the judges and understands the importance of launching this search.
“I think the main objective is to really have as many people informed about the issues that are going on. So to have someone who is young, and unfiltered and really excited about politics and all the issues like the economy and health care. We’re going to basically have someone on the inside being able to report on these things,” Campoverdi said.
Past winners include Wendy Carrillo, who covered the Democratic Convention and Michael Monroy, who covered the Republic Convention.
The main objective of the initiative is to encourage Latino participation in the upcoming Presidential election. In the upcoming election, 27.3 million Latinos will be eligible to vote, with almost 12 million being millennial. While at the same time creating opportunities to young reporters.
“Initiatives like these are really close to my heart. I was raised by a single mom who immigrated from Mexico a few years before I was born. So when I see opportunities like these, it makes me really happy to see our community helping folks that are coming up and being able to create opportunities for folks to have these entry points into industries where they could represent our community,” Campoverdi said.
Voto Latino began as a PSA project organized by Co-founder “Daredevil” star Rosario Dawson in 2004.
