Democratic and Republican candidates eyeing the White House in 2016 are targeting Latino voters in an unprecedented fashion, according to a report from The Washington Post.
"I have never seen the Latino vote prioritized in this way - and this early - in a meaningful way," Cristóbal Alex, president of the Democratic-backed Latino Victory Project, told the Post.
Two of the most pro-immigration Republicans, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who both speak fluent Spanish and routinely highlight their Latino familial ties, are eyeing the portion of Hispanic voters that hold some conservative social values and who haven't yet formed partisan voting habits.
Bush, who is married to a Mexican woman and lived three years in Venezuela, even switched languages during the middle of his presidential campaign announcement speech earlier this month, asking for Latinos to "Help us to have a campaign that welcomes you," reported CNN.
He said during a late April speech in Puerto Rico, "Trust me. I know the power of the immigrant experience because I live it each and every day. I know the immigrant experience because I married a beautiful girl from Mexico. My children are bicultural and bilingual." Last week in Reno, Bush's son, George Prescott Bush, reminded people of his family's heritage, telling the crowd in Spanish that his dad would be publicly speaking more of the language in the upcoming months.
On the ground in Nevada, a key state in the battle for the Latino vote, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's campaign has been the most visible, with staff already going door-to-door, according to the Post.
Last week, Clinton spoke to 1,200 Latino leaders in Las Vegas, saying she would do more than President Obama and any Republican rival to pass immigration reform and halt deportations. The Clinton team has been making a special effort to win over Latino women, even establishing women-to-women phone banks that will encourage grandmothers, moms and daughters to vote for the former first lady, the Post reported.
Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, also running for the Democratic nomination, has struggled to get his name out among the Latino community. On Friday, Sanders took the same Nevada stage as Clinton did earlier in the week, delivering a speech at the annual conference of the National Assn. Of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, which was his first to a Latino audience, according to the LA Times. Sanders' promises to raise the national minimum wage and reduce spending on jails and prisons drew standing ovations. Supporters say that his platform, which also includes free college tuition and Medicare for all, has strong appeal with Hispanic voters. Sanders, too, pledged to go further than Obama in shielding illegal immigrants from deportations.
"We cannot continue to run an economy where millions are made so vulnerable because of their undocumented status," Sanders said, according to the Times. "Who benefits from this exploitation?"
Seeking to outflank Clinton on immigration, a third Democratic candidate, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, has promised to reform the immigration system in the first 100 days of his hypothetical presidency, CNN reported.
Because Nevada hosts one of the first primaries and is a purple state, both parties are focusing more resources to win over the 27 percent of its Hispanic population, of which 16 percent are eligible to vote. That state went to Obama in both 2008 and 2012.
Simon Rosenberg, president of the center-left think tank NDN, told the Post, "There is no path for Republicans to win the presidency in 2016 without flipping heavily Hispanic states" that voted for Obama, which is why "unprecedented amounts of money will be spent speaking to this community."
The major barrier Republican candidates face in obtaining Latino support is the predominant belief among the GOP base that illegal immigrants do not deserve a path to citizenship.
"Not a single Republican candidate, announced or potential, is clearly and consistently supporting a path to citizenship. Not one," Clinton said in Nevada this month, according to the Post. "When they talk about 'legal status,' that is code for second-class status."
Politifact rated her claim as "Mostly False," pointing out that a number of Republican 2016 hopefuls have at least entertained the idea of a path to citizenship for Latino immigrants, albeit most have flip-flopped on the issue multiple times.
The most unambiguous has been Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who told USA Today in May that he "would veto any bill that did not have a pathway to citizenship."
Rubio, whose mother and father were born in Cuba, has been flaky on the issue, but did explain during his campaign announcement that he supports a path to citizenship for many of the 10 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., only after the passage of a number of bills that would tighten border security, limit visa overstays and crack down on illegal workers, according to Politico.
Bush has also flip-flopped extensively on the issue, finally saying in April that the millions of illegal immigrants "should come out from the shadows and receive earned legal status," reported CNS News. The U.S. is the only country that "has the chance to become young and dynamic again" thanks to immigration, Bush said, adding, "This is not the time to abandon something that makes us special and unique." Still, immigration groups have said his priorities "are clearly out of line" with the Latino community, according to the Latin Post.
While more Latinos are registered as Democrats - and President Obama won 71 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2012 - many Latino voters interviewed by the Post said they were upset that Obama hasn't fulfilled his promises, and as a result held off on voting in the primaries in November. Their decision to stay home was seen as a major contributing factor to Republicans' ability to take control of the Nevada legislature for the first time in nearly 100 years, according to the Post.
"I just feel maybe a Republican will get us back on track again," Roger Rojas told the Post. "Reagan was the last president that did anything for us, and I have been really disappointed in Obama."
And so the Republican Party and mega donors on the right like the Koch brothers hope to capitalize on their discontentment. Some Republican estimates have concluded the next GOP presidential nominee will need to garner at least 40 percent of the Hispanic vote to secure a national victory in 2016, reports The Hill.
On Friday, the GOP updated its website with a blog post, written in Spanish, to remind Latino voters of Clinton's wishy-washy positions on immigration. It cites a 2003 interview in which Clinton said she is "adamantly against illegal immigrants" and that "people have to stop employing illegal immigrants"; a 2007 interview where she said, "As president, I will not support licenses for undocumented immigrants"; and a 2014 interview where Clinton said that anyone "that does not have a legitimate claim for asylum or family connection" must be deported.
"It is clear that Hillary Clinton is looking out for her own political ambition rather than the interests of Latinos," the blog post says. "As she has proven time and again, Hillary Clinton will say anything to get elected - make big promises you cannot keep, like President Obama."
Charles and David Koch have infused at least $10 million into the LIBRE Initiative nonprofit group, which has a goal of educating "Hispanic communities about economic freedom principles and values such as free enterprise, limited government and personal responsibility," according to Politico. The group also helps immigrants learn to drive in Nevada, has food banks in Texas and holds free health clinics in Florida, where it also helps Latinos with tax-preparation services, according to BuzzFeed.
"What happened in 2014 spooked the hell out of Democrats, and they realize they don't own the Latino vote," Daniel Garza, LIBRE's executive director, told the Post.
"We intend to double down our efforts," in this "constituency at a crossroads," Garza told the Post, adding that Republicans "don't need to win a majority, just inch it up."
Clinton currently leads among likely Hispanic voters, with 49 percent favorability, but Bush and Rubio follow not too far behind, each receiving 32 percent, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted in May. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, whose father was born in Cuba, received 28 percent support.
