{"id":13426,"date":"2023-08-08T16:19:32","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T16:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13426"},"modified":"2023-08-10T19:10:11","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T19:10:11","slug":"arizona-and-florida-primaries-may-test-joe-bidens-efforts-to-win-over-latinos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13426","title":{"rendered":"Arizona and Florida primaries may test Joe Biden\u2019s efforts to win over Latinos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Matt Pearce<\/em>, Los Angeles Times <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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As Joe Biden hopes to extend his lead in the Democratic presidential \nrace, Tuesday\u2019s scheduled primaries in Arizona, Florida and Illinois \nwill be a test of whether the former vice president can win over one of \nBernie Sanders\u2019 biggest bases of support: Latinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden\u2019s \nadvisors have attributed his soft support among Latinos to his \ncampaign\u2019s relative lack of resources for much of the primary season, \nsomething that is now being turned around with an influx of cash \nfollowing his dominant showing on Super Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although \nactivists and consultants say there\u2019s little risk that most Latinos \nwould abandon a Democratic nominee for President Trump, they say the \nBiden campaign still needs to step up its game to match Sanders in \nengaging a demographic that the party has long hoped to turn out in \ngreater numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the basic rules of politics is the person who shows up and asks for your vote gets it over the person who doesn\u2019t,\u201d said Kristian Ramos, a Democratic consultant who is unaffiliated with any campaign. \u201cIn those early states, Sanders\u2019 team showed up and knocked on those doors; there is not a lot of evidence that the other campaigns did. That has to change in the general election if we are going to take back the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latinos make up sizable shares of the electorate in general-election \nbattleground states such as Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania and Nevada, \nmaking them a key part of any Democratic coalition hoping to beat Trump \nin November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Democratic nominee needs to have a combination \nof winning over some moderates, probably some white voters, and \nmaximizing turnout among black and Latino voters,\u201d said Matt A. Barreto,\n faculty director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative at UCLA, \nwhich has tracked Sanders\u2019 strong showings among Latinos in the \nDemocratic primaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders\u2019 success in drawing Latinos to his 2020 campaign has been one of the Democratic primaries\u2019 biggest storylines, propelling the left-wing candidate to victories in several Latino-heavy Western states, most notably California, the primaries\u2019 most delegate-rich prize. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Sanders has fallen behind Biden after failing to gain the \nsupport of more black and older voters, Sanders has done a good job of \nattracting Latino voters by running Spanish-language advertisements and \nhiring paid staff skilled in organizing in long-ignored communities, \nBarreto said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBiden has to catch up on that outreach if he\u2019s \ngoing to be competitive with the Latino vote going forward,\u201d Barreto \nsaid. \u201cHe was resting a lot on his name recognition and his association \nwith [President] Obama.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activists have occasionally protested Biden<\/a>\n for the Obama administration\u2019s deportation of nearly 3 million \nimmigrants. On Sunday, during a debate with Sanders, Biden announced \nthat he would suspend deportations for immigrants in the country \nillegally for the first 100 days of his administration, except for those\n who had committed felonies, a position similar to the one held by \nSanders, who wants to suspend deportations pending a review of \nimmigration policy. But Biden also slipped and used the term \u201calien,\u201d a \nterm many find offensive. (Biden corrected himself to say \u201cundocumented \nperson.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden\u2019s advisors say the problem with Latino outreach \nhas not been one of substance, but of resources. With the campaign \nstrapped for cash during the early primaries, the geyser of donations \nthat erupted after he became the front-runner will enable him to hire \nmore staff and run more advertisements specifically targeted at Latinos,\n they say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sanders campaign \u201clooked at Latino voters as a \nfirewall and made very significant investments in the community that \nuntil recently we weren\u2019t able to match,\u201d said Crist\u00f3bal Alex, a senior \nBiden advisor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The campaign is now placing Spanish-language TV, \nradio and digital ads in Arizona, Florida and Illinois. \u201cWhat you\u2019ll see\n Tuesday is a good example of what we hope to be able to do in a general\n election,\u201d Alex said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Telemundo poll released last week<\/a>\n showed Sanders leading Biden 47% to 40% among likely Latino voters in \nArizona, something that is consistent with Sanders\u2019 strength with \nLatinos in the West. The same poll showed Biden leading Sanders 48% to \n37% in Florida, where Sanders\u2019 comments<\/a> praising literacy programs in communist Cuba were received poorly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf this guy [Sanders] is the nominee, he\u2019s going to have to convince\n us that he understands the difference between an indoctrination program\n of a dictatorial regime and a literacy program,\u201d said Jose Javier \nRodriguez, a Florida state senator and Cuban American who supports \nBiden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Latinos in Florida are very different from Latinos in \nCalifornia, and Rodriguez thinks Biden is better positioned to address \nexile communities in Florida that have fled left-wing governments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve\n been in the room when Vice President Biden has spoken with leaders of \nthe Venezuelan exile community, and he knows very well what the dynamics\n are in terms of dealing with the really important foreign policy \nissues,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden\u2019s campaign is hopeful that his \nstrength with Latinos in Florida can translate to strength in a matchup \nwith President Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very unlikely if not impossible for \nDonald Trump to win the White House without Florida,\u201d Alex said. \u201cWe \nthink with strong support from the Latino community, we\u2019ll be able to \nwin in Florida and cut off his pathway to the White House should we be \nlucky enough to be the nominee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winning over younger and more \nprogressive Latinos \u2014 for that matter, all young voters, who heavily \nsupport Sanders \u2014 will be Biden\u2019s biggest challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s taken a\n clear stance, which resonates with me,\u201d Mari Yepez, 27, said of \nSanders, who has spoken forcefully on immigration-related issues and \ncalls for the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement \nagency. Yepez is an organizer for Unite Here Local 11 in Arizona, which \ndually endorsed Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has\n since dropped out of the presidential race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of last week, \nYepez hadn\u2019t heard any Biden ads on Spanish-language radio. \u201cThis \nmorning driving into work, I heard a Bernie ad three times,\u201d Yepez said \nWednesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), 40, who recently endorsed \nBiden, thinks that Arizona Latinos view Biden fondly overall. Up until \nrecently, the state had been a Republican stronghold, and \u201cit was only \nthe Obama-Biden administration that was fighting for us\u201d in those years,\n Gallego said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust because some of these voters are voting for \nBernie does not mean that they won\u2019t vote for Biden in the general,\u201d \nGallego said. \u201cI think folks are misinterpreting somehow that these \nvoters don\u2019t like the [former] vice president. That\u2019s horribly \nincorrect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Sanders\u2019 stances on plans such as abolishing \nICE, \u201cthere\u2019s a subsection of very liberal young men and women who take \nthat position,\u201d but who \u201care not in the majority when it comes to the \nLatino population,\u201d Gallego said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Butif Biden secures the \nnomination, he should be courting and hiring the skilled young Latino \nactivists on Sanders\u2019 side, even if some of them \u201csaid something nasty \nabout [the Biden campaign] on Twitter,\u201d Barreto said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou probably don\u2019t want a 70-year-old white guy and his supporters running the strategy of \u2018How do we mobilize a 24-year-old millennial?\u2019\u201d Barreto said. \u201cYou probably want a 25-year-old millennial running that. That\u2019s what Sanders did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Pearce is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times covering the 2020 presidential election. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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