Courting Hispanics: A closer look

Submitted by Travis Valentine on 8/21/07

2008

One topic that hasn't been emphasized too much during the 2008 presidential campaign is the strategic outreach of candidates to court the Hispanic vote. While there has been some mention of this, the coverage of their outreach has been limited particularly to candidate participation in the NCLR Annual Conference, the NALEO Candidate Forum, and the upcoming Univision Candidate Forum at the University of Miami. (NOTE: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama also received coverage for using firms that specialize in Spanish-language communication and polling.)

From campaign staff/endorsements to meetings with prominent Hispanics across the country, candidates are doing quite a bit to go after the Hispanic vote. Some of it is noted in the media, some isn't. So below I take a quick look at some of the major efforts of campaigns to reach out to the fastest growing demographic in the nation. I'll be adding to this as I can, realizing that I haven't touched on the efforts of all of the candidates.

Hillary Clinton - In a recent Bloomberg article, it was made clear that Clinton has made efforts to reach out to the Hispanic community to offset gains made by Barack Obama in the African American community. With endorsements from prominent leaders like Raul Yzaguirre, former president of NCLR, Fabian Nuñez, Speaker of the CA Assembly, Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles, Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers Union, Adolfo Carrión, Jr., Bronx Borough President, and Senator Robert Menendez, Clinton sure boasts a lot of support from Hispanic leaders across the country. Let us also not forget that Clinton's Chief of Staff, Patti Solis Doyle, is the first Latina to run a presidential campaign.

Barack Obama - While Obama doesn't have the vast array of endorsements as Clinton, he has had two incredibly important meetings with two people who could really encourage support for him. Eddie Sotelo and Renán Almendárez Coello - better known as "Piolín" and "El Cucuy" - are two radio DJs credited with driving turnout for the massive immigration marches that occurred in May, 2006.

Listen to Obama's interview with "El Cucuy" (NOTE: the interview is in Spanish with a translator)
Pictures of Obama's meeting with "Piolín" are below:

Bill Richardson - Richardson, who was born in Pasadena, CA to an American father and Mexican mother is the only Hispanic-American in the Democratic field. He grew up in Mexico City and is the Governor of a border state. The man behind his ads is Lionel Sosa who is no stranger to presidential elections. Most recently, Sosa helped deliver 40% of the Hispanic vote to George Bush in 2004. Richardson, who also announced his candidacy in Spanish, also highlights the support he has from Latinos in various YouTube videos.

Listen to Richardson's interview with "El Cucuy" (NOTE: the interview is entirely in Spanish)

UPDATE: Richardson is announced the creation of a grassroots campaign to focus on reaching out to Latinos in the video below:

Chris Dodd - As the recipient of one of NCLR's Capital Awards, Dodd is no stranger to the Hispanic community. And, as the video below shows, Dodd is the other bilingual candidate in the field, having learned to speak Spanish during his time in the Peace Corps: