Bernie Sanders strives to sell his message to Latino voters in Nevada
illary Rodham Clinton was mobbed by fans when she spoke this week before a big crowd of Latino government officials from across the country. When another Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, took the same stage here Friday, the room was about half-empty..
"I haven't heard of him, to be honest," said Luciana Corrales, a school board member from San Ysidro, Calif. And anyway, she added, "I'm a Hillary supporter."
Talk of a Sanders surge has enlivened the campaign in recent weeks, as bigger-than-expected crowds turned out for his fiery speeches about taking on the "billionaire class" amid promising polling in the early-primary state of New Hampshire. But the enthusiasm gap on display at the nation's largest gathering of Latino policymakers highlights the reality of the major demographic challenges Sanders faces as he wages his long-shot bid for the presidency.
Sanders' campaign advisors say his platform, which includes free college tuition and Medicare for all, has appeal across racial and ethnic lines. His speech Friday at the annual conference of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials — his first to a Latino audience — was well-received. His pledges to raise the national minimum wage and reduce spending on jails and prisons drew standing ovations.
After drawing heat from some Latino pundits in recent weeks for not talking enough about immigration, Sanders addressed the issue head-on Friday, matching Clinton's pledge to go further than President Obama in shielding from deportation immigrants who are in the country illegally.
"His name recognition in the Latino community is somewhere in between zero and extremely low," said Matt Barreto, a pollster who focuses on Latino voters. "And you're not going to win an election without Latino support."
Nonwhite voters make up a third or more of the turnout in Democratic primaries in most states, according to exit polls. Sanders, who represents a state that is 94% white, has little experience campaigning for minority votes. That will pose a challenge as he travels to more-diverse early-voting states like Nevada, home to a large Latino population, and South Carolina, where African Americans make up roughly half of Democratic primary voters.
"If your only significant constituency is older white voters, that'll be good in Iowa and New Hampshire, but when you hit Nevada and South Carolina you're in another world," said Democratic strategist Bill Carrick. "If you're going to be the nominee, you're going to have to do pretty well among Latino, African American voters, women, single women and millennials. That's the challenge for Bernie Sanders — to become more than a niche candidate and become a candidate with a broad coalition of support."
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That didn't matter to 20-year-old Christian Herrera, who sat excitedly with his parents in the second row. The family had driven five hours that morning from Mexicali, Calif., to see Sanders speak.
Herrera, who said he was drawn to Sanders' support for free college tuition, said Latinos care about much more than just immigration. Latino issues are American issues, he said.
"He's for the people," Herrera said of Sanders. "He's for the middle class."
More here: http://www.latimes.com/nation/immigration/la-na-democrats-latinos-20150620-story.html#page=1
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