Latino Victory is announcing a new leadership team Wednesday, with the organization’s founding president coming back after five years to chair its board.
The group, a key player in Latino politics, is naming Cristóbal Alex as board chair and promoting Executive Director Katharine Pichardo-Erskine to president and CEO.
“The Latino vote has demonstrated its power, but there is still much work to be done to ensure our voices are fully represented in policymaking. I am honored to lead this organization and collaborate with Cristóbal and our allies to build a more inclusive democracy,” Pichardo-Erskine said in a statement.
Since 2014, when Alex was named founding president, the progressive group founded by Eva Longoria Bastón and Henry Muñoz has expanded its reach, actively supporting 450 candidates for public office.
Latino Victory has three arms: the nonprofit Latino Victory Foundation, the political Latino Victory Project and a super PAC, the Latino Victory Fund.
The group last had a leadership shuffle in 2023, when President Biden nominated then-president and CEO Nathalie Rayes as ambassador to Croatia, promoting then-Executive Director Sindy Benavides to the top post and naming Pichardo-Erskine executive director.
Benavides and Pichardo-Erskine ran Latino Victory through the 2024 election cycle, emphasizing support for Latino candidates nationwide.
“This cycle, we were able to elect 64 Latinos up and down the ballot, ensuring we are fulfilling our mission of increasing Latino representation at the tables of power and halls of Congress,” Benavides said, adding the group also invested more than $2 million in the “#VoteLikeAMadre program and launched Afro-Latinas Lead to increase political representation and build the pipeline to one day elect our first Afro-Latina to Congress.”
Rayes had held the top position from 2020 to 2023, when she took over more than a year after Alex left the post to head President Biden’s Latino outreach for the 2020 presidential campaign.
Alex will now return to chair the group’s board, a position vacated by Luis Miranda, a prominent New York-based Latino advocate.
“Luis has been a driving force for this organization, and we are excited that he will continue to be a member of our Board of Directors,” Alex said. “His leadership has created a foundation upon which we will continue to build and innovate this next election and beyond. We are immensely grateful to him.”
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