Largest Latino group backs Biden in battleground Arizona while spotlighting ballot measures

The largest Latino group in the country endorsed President Joe Biden in Arizona on Tuesdayand said the group will also work to turn out voters to influence potential ballot measures on abortion, minimum wage and immigration. These measures, the group says, are as important in driving Latino voters to the polls.

Janet Murguía, president of UnidosUS and its political arm, UnidosUS Action Fund, threw the group's support behind Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and endorsed Rep. Ruben Gallego in his U.S. Senate race and Raquel Terán and Kirsten Engel in their House races. All are Democrats.

Proposed measures in the highly competitive state include asking voters to legalize abortion and to increase the minimum wage. The Legislature also was scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to put on the ballot a Republican-backed immigration measure with several proposals, including one to create a state law similar to a Texas law that allows police to arrest people in the country illegally and judges to deport them.

"We are looking at this state in a comprehensive way," Murguía said. "Of course the national presidential election is crucial to us, but we see opportunity to leverage the turnout for representation in Congress ... and beyond that it's those key issues that are going to impact our community, minimum wage ... and then the ongoing battle that we're in for women's reproductive health rights."

Arizona Republicans won a state Supreme Court decision to enforce an 1864 near-total abortion ban and had fought efforts to repeal it. The governor has signed a repeal of the law after a handful of Republicans joined Democrats to pass it.

Endorsements, Murguía said, can be leveraged not for just one candidate but also to benefit the