The world is watching for Bad Bunny to make a political statement at the Super Bowl. Democrats are watching closely to figure out how to make their own.

Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, the Puerto Rican recording artist known globally by his stage name, has created a pop culture phenomenon that will converge at a historic halftime show performance at the Super Bowl on Sunday when the New England Patriots play the Seattle Seahawks. Though Bad Bunny already made his Super Bowl debut alongside Shakira and Jennifer Lopez back in 2020, this time the spotlight will be on him and his exclusively in-Spanish catalog. And while his invitation triggered a harsh backlash on the right from the president on down, it’s also marking a major inflection point for Hispanic Americans of all backgrounds.

Sunday may prove to be Bad Bunny’s biggest chance to move the dial.

There’s an opportunity here, Democrats told Blue Light News, to turn Bad Bunny’s cultural phenomenon into a political one, right as the party is mounting its strongest resistance to Trump’s sweeping deportation agenda — and with months to go before the midterms to make amends with Latino voters who have left their tent.

Former Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), who is of Puerto Rican descent and whose tenure in the House was marked by his outspokenness for the Latino communities he represented, emphasized that Democrats need to seize this moment to win back Latino support.

Democrats “do too little to engage the Latino community, and then they wonder why all these Latinos voted for Trump? Because you didn’t knock on their doors asking to vote for the Democrat. You failed to message us in so many ways,” he said. “They should embrace it.”

“It’s such a huge watershed moment,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he used this as a very unifying moment, but also on very resonant and salient grounds to send a message to people.”

There’s already signs of what’s on the Latino rapper’s mind.

“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say, ‘ICE out,’” Bad Bunny said last Sunday as he accepted the Grammy for Best Música Urbana Album for his record-smashing “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” — just hours before taking home the night’s biggest prize, Album of the Year. “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens — we are humans, and we are Americans.”

Bad Bunny isn’t new to political endeavors. But he has long focused primarily on island politics — he’s a big activist for Puerto Rican independence — and has only occasionally weighed in on mainland issues.

In 2024, shortly after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe infamously disparaged Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” during the pre-show for Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden, Bad Bunny posted an endorsement of Kamala Harris to his tens of millions of Instagram followers. But he never appeared with Harris on the campaign trail.

His political trajectory has followed other Latino voters’ in recent months, however. Polls show many Hispanics have been particularly outraged at the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. And they are highly motivated to vote and could shift left, after consecutive election cycles where Trump made significant inroads with Latinos.

Americans overall in recent polling have shown an increasing souring on Trump’s handling of immigration. The two fatal shootings in Minneapolis and the stream of videos of ICE raids online are driving a fierce grassroots opposition that is pushing Democrats to hold the line on Blue Light News and not cave in negotiations on the DHS funding bill. But Trump’s crackdown has been felt most acutely in Latino communities. For many, the stories of families being detained have fueled a feeling of solidarity across the diaspora.

“That’s bringing people of all kinds together — especially the Latino community, the diaspora of Latino communities, that come from so many different places, so many different subcultures. It’s bringing us together in a new vision of latinidad,” said Chicago Alderman Michael Rodriguez, who represents the city’s historically Mexican Little Village community. “Our community is being assaulted right now.”

During Bad Bunny’s massive world tour last year, the artist did not schedule any shows on the U.S. mainland, in part due to concerns that ICE would target his concerts for immigration enforcement operations. “It’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about,” he told i-D magazine in a September interview.

After the rapper was announced as the halftime performer in September, Corey Lewandowski said there would be ICE enforcement operations at the Super Bowl — seemingly bringing to life some of the concerns that Martínez Ocasio voiced. Local leaders in the Bay Area have said this week they’ve privately been told no ICE officers will be at the show. DHS has remained more vague publicly about enforcement plans around the game. DHS did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Meanwhile, Republicans this weekend — many of whom in the MAGA universe have referred to Martínez Ocasio as “Woke Bunny” — are holding their own halftime performance to make a statement. Turning Point is counterprogramming Bad Bunny’s performance with a made-for-television “All American Halftime Show” featuring Kid Rock. “I think that that part of the country just felt offended,” said Andrew Kolvert, a spokesperson for Turning Point. “There needs to be a counter voice that says, ‘Hey, you know, we love this country. We love the rule of law, we love our troops, we love law enforcement, we love traditional America.’”

For Democrats, the question of how to better engage and win in Latino communities has dogged them as the party searches for a way out of the wilderness since their 2024 election losses. Bad Bunny has shown a natural ability to bring those communities together with his music, filling stadiums across the world for multi-night shows.

“It’s not that easy. We’re 23 countries, we fight each other every day,” said Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), who represents the largest Puerto Rican community in the Midwest — and whose city of Chicago was an early target of Trump’s increased immigration enforcement efforts. “For Bad Bunny to be able to bring Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Guatemalans, Dominicans together, and all feel like they’re being heard and that he can represent them, says a lot about who is.”

As for Martínez Ocasio, he’s keeping mum about what to expect from his performance on Sunday night. “It’s going to be a huge party,” he said at a preview event on Thursday. “I want to bring to the stage, of course, a lot of my culture. But I really don’t, I don’t want to give any spoilers. It’s going to be fun.”

The cultural solidarity that Bad Bunny’s music has fostered could translate into political unity, Rodriguez, the Chicago alderman, said. And some of his fellow Democrats are ready to build on the moment.

“There’s just no scenario where he is not going to have a message,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said. “There are moments in history that really move a community and solidify them within a political movement. And I think that’s happening right now.”