Interested in new ways to turnout the Latino vote? Then you might want to turn to a new issue brief from Tova Andrea Wang, Democracy Fellow at The Century Foundation, entitled, "New Strategies for Latino Voter Mobilization: The Nevada Democratic Caucus as a Case Study." It is largely based on the efforts of our own Andres Ramirez, who was the Outreach Director for the Nevada State Democratic Party prior to NDN. He was also in charge of engaging and mobilizing Latinos in the January 19th Caucus.
But back to the brief, which justifies itself by acknowledging the Latino community's potential influence in American politics, something we at NDN look at in our recent report, Hispanics Rising. It then justifies Nevada as a state whose particular role in the primary process provides a way to test and measure the power and passion of the Latino community:
No place was this more true than in Nevada, a state that the Democratic Party specifically chose to have a contest very early in the process in 2008 because it had a large Latino population. Nevada's caucus was held before the contests of any other states with big Spanish-speaking populations. At the same time, the party in Nevada had the cards stacked against it in terms of attracting high voter participation. The state had no history of great political involvement; caucuses have proved to be much more difficult to attract voters to than primaries, for a number of reasons; and most voters in the state, particularly those who were relatively new Americans, had no experience voting in nominating contests, let alone taking part in the Byzantine ways of a Saturday caucus.
Up until Nevada, the strategies typically employed involved face-to-face canvassing and Spanish-language phone banks that engage callers. Yet given the challenges mentioned above, Andres and his team had to get creative:
In a major break from traditional get-out-the-vote strategy, the party did not rely solely on contacting voters at home, but took their efforts to the workplaces of Latinos. The party did not focus only on door-to-door outreach trying, to make contact at times people might be at home- instead they went to where they work. They went to Latino businesses, such as construction sites and restaurants, and talked to employees and customers. They posted information in the mercados and supermercados. They worked with employers to get information to and make contact with the employees.
Staff and volunteers placed 1,657 posters and distributed 8,963 brochures in all types of businesses that were Latino-owned or had a large Latino customer or client base, including taco shops, tienditas, beauty salons, and swap meets. But they did not just focus their efforts on the obvious and easily accessible storefront operations-they also delivered materials to the offices of lawyers, insurance agencies, doctors, accountants, and notary publics. They went anywhere they could think of that might have a large Spanish-speaking clientele and worked with the heads of such businesses to get the information out to the community. They then made an effort to build and then maintain relationships with these business owners and employers who might not be the usual political partners, but had influence in the community in other ways.
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The Latino outreach team also went to work in the places where the Latino community went to socialize, and brought voting and politics to those events.
"Los Democratas": For example, early on the party established a soccer team, "Los Democratas," that played games in a major Latino league. The name itself was picked to prompt a conversation-players and fans might wonder what does "Los Democratas" mean? At games, volunteers wearing team t-shirts engaged in voter education about the caucus, registered voters, and handed out citizenship applications. They were able to engage the community in a nontraditional, very friendly setting, and have dialogues with them that were more in depth than they might have been at some other kind of event, on the street, or even going door to door (most of these people would never have attended an event that specifically was politically oriented). These encounters were in an environment that was fun, not so serious, making discussion of the political process perhaps less daunting.
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Party staff and volunteers also went to picnics, Cinco de Mayo festivals, and other Spanish fiestas. They crashed private quinceaneras (a girl's fifteenth birthday party, similar to a sweet sixteen), went to posadas (celebrations during the week before Christmas), and made a major effort on a weekly basis at courthouse naturalization ceremonies to encourage new citizens to register and take part in the caucuses.
The party held several mock caucuses all over the state, had a complete Spanish-language Web site up and running, and had a Spanish-language hotline up and running in the weeks before the caucus and on voting day.
Free media: The staff of the Latino outreach operation also was able to develop unique relationships with the Spanish language print and broadcast media. In brief, the staff was able to make the case successfully to media executives that the caucuses were the single most important thing happening in the Latino community. The Democratic Party had its first media training with the Spanish-language media, explaining how the caucus worked and why it was so newsworthy. They built a relationship with the Spanish media that would pay dividends in later coverage.
For example, the Spanish-language cable news station Univision put the staff of the Latino outreach effort on the air at least once a week. Univision reported on the caucus everyday. This prompted viewer questions, and Univision had the outreach staff answer those questions on the air. The staff was also often on the television station Telemundo. El Tiempo Libre, the largest Spanish newspaper in the state, had a column in every edition for months leading up to the caucus talking about it, and published a multi-page insert with all the information a voter would need to participate shortly before caucus day.
Paid media: Many believe the paid media was particularly effective in getting the message out. The party used a Hispanic marketing firm, Language Sources, rather than a political consulting firm. The company did not specialize in politics, but rather in taking information, translating it, and most important making it understandable and accessible to the Spanish-speaking audience.
Turnout was historic, despite the problems that occurred:
Overall, Democratic turnout was 117,599, which amounts to about 30 percent of all registered Democrats in Nevada- compared to a turnout of 9,000 four years ago.32 About 30,000 people registered to vote at the caucuses.33 Much was made of the fact that Clinton won the Latino vote by a two-to-one margin, and won most of the caucuses held in the hotels, where the Culinary Workers Union's endorsement of Obama had been expected to be a major influence.
It is quite clear that the methods employed by Andres and his team were done in a way that were innovative and culturally respectful. While Ms. Wang offered suggestions for further research, and touched upon the challenges faced by Latinos on caucus day, she nonetheless portrayed the efforts in Nevada as encouraging, saying that they should serve as a model for other groups and candidates trying to reach the Latino voter. Of course, we at NDN agree, having engaged in award-winning media campaigns targeting Latinos, including our "Mas Que un Partido" Futbol campaign, as well as our efforts to encourage Spanish-language advocay.
(Friendly reminder: NDN was in Las Vegas in the days leading up to the caucus, leaving our blog with a good deal of caucus-related posts, including one from Tom Schaller.)
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