Donald Trump surrogate Marco Gutierrez’s comment about there being “taco trucks on every corner” if Hillary Clinton becomes president has prompted a Texas man to have a handful of mobile taquerías double as voter registration booths.
Thomas Hull of Houston-based design firm Rigsby Hull has turned eight local taco trucks into mobile registration centers as part of a “Guac the Vote” campaign launched Tuesday in celebration of National Voter Registration Day, and his website says he has similar plans for dozens of the city’s roving kitchens.
“We’re also handing out information on where to vote, with early votes and on Election Day and the process of voting, ’cause that’s — registering folks to vote — is half the battle. The other half is getting folks to the polls,” Mr. Hull told Houston Public Media.
The designer’s initiative got off the ground Tuesday, less than a month after Mr. Gutierrez, founder of the group Latinos for Trump, provoked a firestorm with a remark he made in defense of the Republican presidential nominee’s immigration policy during an interview on MSNBC.
“My culture is a very dominant culture, and it’s imposing, it’s causing problems. If you don’t do something about it, you’re going to have taco trucks [on] every corner,” he said.
Mr. Gutierrez’s comment quickly spurred reactions from either side of the aisle, and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce said it would attempt to put taco trucks nearby as many polling sites as possible when Americans hit the polls on Nov. 8. As Election Day nears, however, Mr. Hull has begun stocking Houston’s taco trucks with registration forms and other information to prepare voters before the presidential race with assistance from Mi Familiar Vota, a nonprofit civic engagement group which focuses on issues of importance to the Latino community.
“Visit Taqueria Las Glorias on 7400 Long Point Drive to become a registered voter, enjoy a taco, and #GuacTheVote!” he tweeted Tuesday alongside a picture of one of the mobile registration centers deployed as part of his current fleet. Similar tweets accompanied photographs of trucks including Tila’s Tacos and Taqueria Las Glorias, among others.
The Guac the Vote trucks are slated to stay on Houston roads through Oct. 11, Houston Public Radio reported.
In March, a record 4.2 million Texas cast ballots in the state’s primaries. Nonetheless, that figure represented only 21.5 percent of adults 18 and older, giving the Lone Star State the distinction of ranking next-to-last in the country in voter turnout, the Texas Tribune reported.
State Rep. Ramon Romero, Fort Worth Democrat, told the Star-Tribune that he thinks turning taco trucks into mobile registration centers is a “great idea.”
“Anything that gets people out to vote is a good thing,” he said.
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