Facing a steep deficit with Latino voters, the Republican Party is expanding its efforts to reach out to the key voting group ahead of this fall’s elections.

The Republican National Committee announced Monday the hiring of a half-dozen “Hispanic Outreach State Directors” to help build grassroots operations on the ground in battleground states where the Latino vote could be decisive in November. The political committee made it clear its message to Latino voters would be centered around the economy.

“Within the coming months, the RNC will tirelessly work to engage the Hispanic community not only in battleground states but across the United States. With the unemployment rate for Hispanics over ten percent, two points higher than the national average, Hispanics across the country are frustrated with rising gas prices and skyrocketing debt,” said RNC chairman Reince Priebus.

Outreach directors will be placed in Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Virginia (all states President Obama won in 2008). The latter two states are not considered traditionally Latino-heavy states, but the Latino voting population has rapidly grown there over the past decade. Four years ago, Obama won both by extremely narrow margins with the help of Latino voters, who again could represent the margin of victory in 2012.

Read the full story at Univision News