OpEd: Gambling with the Legacy: Why LULAC Must Choose Substance Over Spectacle

 Gambling with the Legacy: Why LULAC Must Choose Substance Over Spectacle

The "Defending the Vote" town hall held today, April 13, 2026, was a necessary conversation. The work being done by Secretaries of State Adrian Fontes and Francisco Aguilar is vital. Their fight against the "SAVE America Act" and the toxic disinformation of "La Gran Mentira" is a fight we must win. The message is right. The urgency is real.

But the method is a dangerous, systemic failure.

Tearing Down the Firewall

In the world of high-stakes operations, "firewalls" exist to protect core assets from high-risk exposure. LULAC’s legal architecture is no different. We have the LULAC Institute (501c3) for charitable education, the National Membership (501c4) for social welfare, and the LULAC PAC for political action.

When the national office uses membership resources and staff hours to host active candidates during an election year, they aren’t just "advocating"—they are tearing that firewall down. By funneling a partisan celebratory event through our primary channels rather than the PAC, leadership is effectively inviting the IRS to audit our books.

The IRS is not ambiguous about this: charitable organizations are strictly forbidden from participating in political campaigns. By providing a national platform to two incumbents currently running for re-election, we are crossing the line from non-profit education into electioneering. We are gambling with our tax-exempt status for the sake of an hour of political optics.

The High Cost of "Celebratory" Governance

Advocacy is not a Zoom call. It is not a press release. True advocacy is the quiet, grinding work of building economic and educational infrastructure. It is the hard work of moving the needle for families who have been left behind.

Every dollar and every hour spent on these high-gloss political spectacles is a resource stolen from our core mission. National funding should be flowing directly into programs that provide a permanent return on investment for our people:

• Economic Empowerment: Small business grants and workforce training for a 2026 economy.
• Educational Support: Protecting the scholarships and literacy programs that give our youth a fighting chance.
• Direct Mutual Aid: Strengthening local councils so they can serve as the heartbeat of their communities.

We should be measuring our success by the number of Latino families we lift into the middle class, not by how many politicians we can fit onto a digital flyer.

Politics in the PAC; Progress in the Community

Let me be clear: we must support the leaders who stand with us. But we have a legal, designated tool for that: The LULAC PAC. That is why it exists. By keeping partisan advocacy inside the PAC, we protect the membership arm as a non-partisan sanctuary where all Latinos—regardless of their politics—can find a home.

When we blur these lines, we don’t just risk a federal audit; we risk our reputation. We risk being seen as just another political machine rather than the historic civil rights organization that has fought for the dignity of our people since 1929.

It is time for the national office to pivot. We need to stop the "celebratory" governance and return to the business of building community. National funding must be redirected to the programs that actually change lives.

Let the PAC handle the politics. Let LULAC handle the progress. We owe it to our history, and we owe it to the families who are counting on us to get this right.

Authored by a Concerned LULAC Member