Latino groups warn that Biden's sluggish outreach to their voters could hurt in November

[brooklynite]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by applegrove (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Washington Post

Top Latino Democrats are voicing growing concern about Joe Biden’s campaign, warning that lackluster efforts to win the support of their community could have devastating consequences in the November election.

Recent polls showing President Trump’s inroads with Latinos have set off a fresh round of frustration and finger-pointing among Democrats, confirming problems some say have simmered for months. Many Latino activists and officials said Biden is now playing catch-up, particularly in the pivotal state of Florida, where he will campaign Tuesday — the start of National Hispanic Heritage Month — for the first time as the presidential nominee. Reaching out to Latino voters will be a key focus on the visit, according to a person with knowledge of the trip. Biden’s campaign said he will be in Tampa and Kissimmee, two areas with large Puerto Rican populations.

“Within the last two weeks, they’ve been making an effort to put all the pieces in place,” said José Parra, who served as a senior adviser to Harry M. Reid when he was Senate majority leader and lives in Miami. “What worries me is how late in the game they are trying to put those pieces into place.”

The Democratic anxiety extends to Arizona, which the party hopes to turn blue for the first time in 24 years, as well as Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Georgia — all states where the Latino vote is important. Adding to Biden’s challenge in Florida, a must-win state for Trump, is the complexity of the Hispanic population, where the president is popular among conservative Cuban Americans and Republican attacks on Democrats as “socialists” have resonated.


Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/latino-groups-warn-that-bidens-sluggish-outreach-could-have-devastating-results/2020/09/13/82dab318-f44b-11ea-bc45-e5d48ab44b9f_story.html

[mdbl]

1. So what is Trump doing to attract the Latino vote

did he offer to stop building the wall? Again I am caught off guard on voters' lack of common sense.

[JI7]

2. attacking Biden as being a socialist

[mdbl]

4. I'll take your word for it

but even if it were true, which of course it is not, I don't remember that being a big issue within that community. But they can continue to support fascism if they like. It will get them nowhere. I hope there is a way the Biden campaign can relate that point.

[Claustrum]

10. You are assuming that all Latino is against Trump's "build the wall" message which isn't the case

Trump won 29% of the Latino vote share in the 2016 general election. He has since been much less vocal about the Mexican/Latino rhetoric. And the "socialist" message did resonant (surely unfair and untrue). It's evident by the rise of Trump's polling after he did the Spanish ad a few weeks back. So it's upon the Biden camp to counter that narrative, especially in FL.

[cstanleytech]

14. A number of anti Trump ads featuring pictures of children in cages crying might help there.

[LeftInTX]

21. Lots of ads in Spanish language media

There are lots of independents who are ambivalent about the wall etc.

There are lots of anti-abortion Catholics, Fundies, and Mormons

[sinkingfeeling]

3. And they are dealing with RW craziness.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142581537

[mdbl]

6. OMG, I missed that post

Thanks for the link back. Now I get it. I used to ask myself how weird this could get. Seems there is no limit.

[Lonestarblue]

5. And Latino groups think they'll be better off with Donald Trump?

He who throws paper towels at people while preventing millions of dollars allocated to help Puerto Rico rebuild from being used. I understand that everyone wants a piece of the pie, but leaders of any group who run to the national media to air their grievances are only causing voters to doubt the one candidate who would help them. Donald Trump certainly won’t do anything for them. So why aren’t these Latino Democrats privately volunteering to help the Biden campaign instead of airing their grievances in the media? That would seem more productive action toward their goal.

How do people not realize that the media is looking for ways to tear Biden down to create a horse race just as they did with Clinton? Democrats shouldn’t make it easy for them.

[lagomorph777]

30. Biden needs to target each Latino consituency differently.

For Puerto Ricans (at home or on the mainland) he needs to toss the paper towel argument out there. Trump has attacked the people of Puerto Rico at every turn and caused them tremendous harm.

For those of Mexican and Central American origin (especially those with cross-border family ties) Biden has to point out that they have suffered enormously under Trump's racist border policies. Those with religious convictions must be asked whether Jesus would arrest, torture, and disappear thousands of babies and children.

For Cubans and Cuban Americans, Biden must ask: "How was life under a dictatorship? Would you like to live under a dictator here in America?"

[NoMoreRepugs]

7. RePutinicans have done what for Latinos exactly??

I must be missing something. Especially Puerto Rican’s.

[ripcord]

18. People forget that many Hispanics are socially conservative

[LiberalFighter]

8. And these "Latino groups" are complaining to the media?

[Bengus81]

9. Where did Latino's think that $1200-$2400 deposited in their checking accounts came from?

People like Trump and McConnell?? Next up if FAT NIXON is elected and can get the House back is to destroy the ACA once and for all and then KILL Social Security from the inside out.

Hell..Trump is already trying to kill SS with zero authority to do so from Congress. Yeah...I'll bet a vote for Trump and Republicans will really help out Latino's.

[Claustrum]

11. Yes. I've even seen some people say it's the "Trump check" on here

I kept correcting them that it's our money, the taxpayer money.

[NurseJackie]

12. LOL!

[cstanleytech]

13. Those voters better wake up though because if they will be supporting Trump by not supporting Biden

and we already know Trump is willing to do things to them like take away their children and put them into cages.

[Dopers_Greed]

15. Even in the Hispanic community there is prejudice against undocumented migrants

They see themselves as "better" than the Central Americans that are being rounded up by Trump's SS.

We can't keep burying our heads in the sand when it comes to inconvenient truths. That is what conservatives do.

[George II]

17. There's also prejudice by Cubans against any Hispanic or Latinos that aren't Cuban....

I remember many years ago I was working with a woman named Perez. We were walking down a hallway in the hospital we worked out, and some guy said something to her in Spanish.

She said "I hate spics" (not my word) - I was floored! I asked here politely, "I'm sorry, but what are you?" She answered with a proud and indignant tone, "I am CUBAN!" She then explained that Cubans consider themselves European, not from the Islands or Latin America.

[cstanleytech]

20. Its not just immigrants Trump wants to target though as he is a known bigot so its only a matter of

time until he makes moves that will attack the varies minorities should he get another term in office.

[LeftInTX]

22. If they are registered voters, Trump won't put their kids in cages

The kids in cages are not their kids.

Obama "did it too" is also a rationale.

[cstanleytech]

29. Not yet but if he is given another term I would not be willing to bet that he would not try to

justify doing it much like how certain people in pre WWII Germany justified what they did to the Jews as well as a number of other people.

[George II]

16. Who are those "Leaders" and what are they doing? Is it coincidental that this is coming out almost..

....simultaneously with the "Sanders is concerned" story?

What happened to Democrats working TOGETHER with each other instead of creating their own little fiefdoms, all pulling in different directions?

[LeftInTX]

23. Julian Castro

[George II]

24. Okay, against my better judgement I went through the article (it's a pay site) and caught....

...only three names:

Julian Castro
Jose Parra - an advisor to Harry Reid
Chuck Rocha - SANDERS' Latino outreach coordinator.

Other than Castro, neither of the others are "TOP" Democrats and it's not surprising that this story comes out a day or two after Sanders bashed the Biden campaign, "expressing concern".

So we have two stories criticizing the nominee's campaign, both seemingly instigated all or in part by Bernie Sanders. When does it stop?

[LeftInTX]

27. Castro has been at for a month or so.

Texas Latinos always feel slighted by Democratic presidential campaigns, but I think it's a matter of economics. Camps just don't have the money to be competitive here.

[samsingh]

26. Biden should reach out to them ASAP.

[stopdiggin]

19. Waaaah. Not paying enough attention to me.

The (utterly predictable) cry of a spoiled infant. And it happens every election cycle.

Lationos/Latinix that are of Democratic persuasion are already on board (big time) with Biden. Those with a natural Republican bent -- are going to make their minds up (just like the rest of the voting populous) on the basis of Trump's perceived performance -- and not on the basis of Democratic outreach.

(Note: I am not saying that outreach isn't important. But this 11th hour hand wringing and nattering is typical, predictable -- and is more about intra-party squabbling and window dressing than actual effective outreach.)

[George II]

25. One of only three "top Democrats" actually mentioned in the opinion piece, and not a...

...."top Democrat" at that, worked with the Sanders campaign as his Latino outreach coordinator.

So once again we're seeing an attack on the Biden campaign from the outside by an associate of Sanders. This, along with the "Sanders is concerned...." article we saw over the weekend, seems to be a coordinated effort to bash the Biden campaign.

[kimbutgar]

28. Yesterday someone posted a video of MF45 using a mock Latino accent

That’s really going to win them over. But I do know a lot of evangelical Latinos so there is some concern. My husband works with an American born Mexican guy that is so ethnic looking INS would scoop him up off the street. He is so in the MF45 cult he is brainwashed and unreachable. When the white supremacy thing ramps up if MF45 is re elected he won’t be getting a pass because of the color of his skin.

[stillcool]

31. Great way to end the article...

If Biden prevails in November, Rocha quipped, the news headline at the end of the race might be, “Bernie Sanders’s Latino team saves Joe Biden’s a--.”

Nice.

[applegrove]

32. After discussion with hosts ... LOCKING

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