Perez: Donald Trump has put the ‘fear of God’ in Latino voters

President Trump is seeking to “put the fear of God” into Latino voters to keep them from the polls, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said Monday.

“Let’s be honest, Donald Trump has put the fear of God into a lot of Latino voters,” Perez said on CNN’s “New Day.” “He’s demonized them, he debases them.”

“He wants them to stay home,” he added. “We’re not going to allow that to happen.”

{mosads}Perez said the Democrats are attempting to counter that message by “aggressively courting every voter including, but not limited to, Latino voters.”

Perez’s comments come two days after Trump threatened “maximum penalties” for voter fraud in a message on Twitter.

“All levels of government and Law Enforcement are watching carefully for VOTER FRAUD, including during EARLY VOTING,” Trump tweeted Saturday. “Cheat at your own peril. Violators will be subject to maximum penalties, both civil and criminal!” 

Democrats have struggled to ensure support from Latino voters, a key voting bloc for a number of races in California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Florida.

Trump and other Republicans have often warned of voting fraud, and Trump claimed he would have won the popular vote if “millions of people who voted illegally” weren’t counted.

A number of studies have found no evidence of massive voter fraud, however, and the Brennan Center for Justice found that noncitizen voting in 2016 was exceedingly rare, debunking Trump’s claim on the popular vote.