Equis | About

About Equis

Equis

is how

the letter “x” is pronounced in Spanish.

Latino voters have the power to define our future.

Equis is renowned for its best-in-class research and polling on Latino voters, as well as a set of large-scale, long-term “Moonshot'' initiatives spanning across democracy, media, culture, and talent designed to get to the root cause of the issues preventing Latino voters from embracing their full civic potential.
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We believe the future of American democracy is inextricably linked to our ability to massively increase civic participation among Latinos in this country.

Our Story

Equis set out to create a better understanding of Latinos, innovate new approaches to reach and engage them, and invest in the leadership and infrastructure for long-term change and increased engagement.

2018

Convening of Latino Leaders

With combined decades of experience in campaigns, government, philanthropy and organizing, Equis co-founders Stephanie Valencia and Carlos Odio, brought together a community of Latino policymakers, business people, civic leaders, and elected officials to be in community and discuss the challenges facing the Latino community. These conversations helped to plant the seeds for what would eventually become Equis and the formation of its Moonshots portfolio.

2019

Equis is Founded

In 2019, EquisLabs was incorporated ahead of the 2020 elections.

2020

Research and Testing

In one of the most consequential elections in U.S. history, Equis conducted essential research and polling about the state of Latino voters and shaped key narratives about the 2020 elections. Equis research becomes the gold standard for understanding and engaging Latinos in the U.S.

2021

Learning and Growing

With years of digital, campaign and political experience, Chief of Moonshots Jess Morales Rocketto joins the Equis team during a critical inflection point.

Equis engaged in an in-depth analysis of the 2020 election that found that Latinos remain on the sidelines of democracy. As a result of this research, Equis conducted a robust gaps analysis with over 100 stakeholders that identified major obstacles in the arenas of democracy, media, culture and talent that keep Latinos on the sidelines. This analysis would become the foundation for an audacious Moonshots strategy.

2022-2023

Moonshots Launch

In 2022 Equis officially launches our Moonshots initiatives — projects ranging from democracy to media — aimed at addressing critical gaps that prevent Latinos from growing our political power.

Moonshots are a cornerstone of the Equis story and grounded in the culmination of decades of experience, research, data, and input from partners and allies.

Meanwhile, Equis Research continued to build a deep and nuanced understanding of Latino voters, their political identities and issue preferences in the 2022 midterm elections.

2024

Scaling for the Future

Equis has cemented its role as a public utility for the broader progressive ecosystem for how best to serve and engage Latino voters and we continue to fill critical gaps in our infrastructure necessary for building Latino power.

Our Mission

Equis is a set of organizations working to create a better understanding of Latinos, innovate new approaches to reach and engage them, and invest in the leadership and infrastructure for long-term change and increased engagement.

Our Vision

We envision a world where Latinos feel influential and powerful. Our community, democracy deserve a future built by and for Latinos. Once and for all, we want to feel at home in our families, our communities, and our country.

Our Approach

Equis works collaboratively with partners and allies to fill gaps in our infrastructure and to provide actionable resources to our network and community.

Understanding

Equis conducts best-in-class research, polling, and analysis as well as digital testing and experimentation that broaden and deepen our understanding of Latino voters and our community.

Building

Moonshots are a set of audacious, large-scale infrastructure and power-building initiatives spanning democracy, media, culture, and talent. Moonshots work to address the most pressing and complex issues keeping the Latinx community on the margins of democracy and society.

Advising

We seek to be a resource that develops actionable recommendations and guidance for practitioners seeking to engage the Latino voter and for the broader ecosystem to better understand the Latino community.

Collaborating

We work collaboratively with partners, allies and movement leaders by convening, sharing our latest findings and learnings, and supporting programs that address the deep-rooted issues that prevent Hispanic and Latino communities from achieving their full potential and influence.

Our Impact

Since our founding, Equis has interviewed over 70,000 Latinos across ten states through our research program, developing actionable guidance for partners and practitioners working to get Latino voters off the sidelines of our democracy, including national, state, and local partners across the country and key decision makers and stakeholders.

Our Moonshots are starting to see big wins too; through this project, we’ve identified over 2.1 million previously “invisible” Latino voters in the voter file through improved race modeling, accumulated over 9 million views of original content developed to combat mis-and disinformation on YouTube, and knocked on over 500,000 Latino doors in two small, high-density communities to better understand how to quickly and dramatically increase Latino turnout, among others.

Partnerships

125

National and
state partners

Research

States represented in our research

70K

Latinos interviewed

Moonshots

2.1M

“Invisible” Latino voters identified

Original Content views, centered around combatting mis-and disinformation

500K

Doors knocked on in two small, high-density communities

Our Leadership

Stephanie Valencia

Co-Founder, CEO

She/Her/Hers

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Stephanie Valencia is a national leader and innovator at the nexus of politics, technology, and leadership development. She is the co-founder of Equis, a set of organizations working to create a better understanding of Latino voters and investing in new approaches to reach and engage them while building the infrastructure and leadership bench to advance this important work.

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She has spent her career working in Congress, the White House, Google, and advised entrepreneurs like Reid Hoffman and Penny Pritzker.

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She serves on the boards of Planned Parenthood for America Action, Community Change Action, and is a founding member of Poderistas, with Eva Longoria & America Ferrera.

Carlos Odio

Co-Founder & Senior Vice President Research

He/Him/His

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Carlos oversees the research and overall strategy for Equis.‍

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Previously, Carlos an advisor to progressive funders on strategies around civic engagement, advocacy and politics. For more than five years, he acted as Executive Director for the Florida Alliance, a state donor collaborative that fund campaigns for democracy reform, civic participation, and legislative accountability, among others.

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Formerly, he was Director of Special Projects for New Organizing Institute, leading experiments on candidate recruitment and online campaign training. He was a member of the DNC Platform Drafting Committee in 2012.

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Carlos served in the White House Office of Political Affairs, acting as a liaison for Latino leaders and an advisor on political issues in the southern and western regions, after working as Deputy Latino Vote Director for the 2008 presidential campaign.

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Before joining the campaign, he managed communications for AlleyCorp, a group of New York-based internet start-ups that included Business Insider and Gilt Groupe, and GALA, an arts non-profit in DC.

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At American University, he majored in Spanish studies, focusing on Latin American literature. Carlos is from Miami, FL and currently resides in West New York, NJ with his wife and two daughters.

Jess Morales Rocketto

Co-Founder and Chief of Moonshots

She/Her/Hers

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Jess Morales Rocketto is a civil society leader, community organizer and media entrepreneur. Jess is Co-Founder and Chief of Moonshot Strategies at Equis, leading their efforts on new, bold, and long-term efforts to build Latino power and influence in the US.

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Previously, Jess was honored to serve America’s domestic workers at the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Care in Action, establishing and leading the movement's political efforts, turning it into one of the largest women of color political organizing programs in the country and introducing the first federal legislation for domestic workers in history. She is a leader in immigration reform, most notably against Trump’s Muslim Ban and family separation policies as the Co-Chair of Families Belong Together, and the fight for comprehensive immigration reform.

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As a champion for gender equity, Jess is also the co-founder of Supermajority and Poderistas. Jess stuffed her first envelope in a campaign office at 14 and hasn’t stopped since, with a distinguished career working for President Obama’s re-election campaign, Hillary Clinton’s historic presidential campaign, at the Democratic Party, and for America’s unions at the AFL-CIO.