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Sunday, Jul 5, 2009
Latino voters in this economically pummeled swing state harbor fears, hopes -- and rising electoral power. They could help deliver Obama to the White House.
By Dan Hoyle
Read more: John McCain, Politics, News, Latinos, Iraq, Immigration, Economy, Barack Obama, 2008 election, Dan Hoyle
Salon composite
Screen shot of an ad by the Obama campaign
Sept. 30, 2008 | RENO, Nev. -- Barack Obama's campaign headquarters in Reno sits in the heart of a bustling neighborhood of Latino clothing stores, taco stands and tax advisors. On a late September day outside of the King Ranch market, across the street from the campaign office, Latino voters spoke in Spanish about their hopes and concerns for the fast-approaching presidential election. Hermilla Sanvicente, 37, who works in real estate and also owns a hot dog stand, said that until this year, she had been uninvolved in politics. "But this time, between friends, we've been talking about it," she said. "It's very different." She will cast the first vote of her life for Obama.
Bill Clinton is the only Democrat to win Nevada in a presidential election in the last 40 years. But the Obama campaign believes that by turning out thousands of newly registered younger and Latino voters, many of whom have been hard hit by a sinking economy, they can capture the Silver State's five electoral votes. Those five votes could be pivotal on a national electoral map that remains too close to call.
In 2004, George W. Bush narrowly defeated John Kerry in Nevada, receiving 50.5 percent of the vote to Kerry's 48 percent -- including a crucial 40 percent of Latino voters. Because 90 percent of Nevada's population lives in Las Vegas' Clark County or Reno's Washoe County, the campaigning is concentrated in those places. The Democrats traditionally do well in Las Vegas, while the Republicans dominate in rural Nevada (where Bush won as much as 80 percent of the vote). Both sides see Reno's Washoe County, where Bush won 51 percent of the vote in 2004, as the crucial battleground in the state.
If the national race is a dead heat to the finish, Washoe County could indeed play a decisive part. How well the campaigns reach out to Reno's Latino voters therefore could be key: They make up roughly 20 percent of the city's population and 12 percent of its voting population.
Interviews with more than a dozen Latino voters last week, in Reno and in rural northern Nevada, showed that Obama has some momentum, but still has his work cut out for him. Support for Obama was strong in Reno (where he's scheduled to campaign again Tuesday), and included several first-time voters, while in rural Nevada, many Latino voters seemed apathetic about the election. Some small-business owners expressed skepticism about Obama's tax plan, and a few seemed unsure about his level of experience.
But one central theme of the Obama campaign seems to be resonating here. "I want Obama, because the other 'huey' just seems like Bush refried," said Jesus Sanchez, 40, a construction worker, using the Mexican slang for "dude" to describe McCain. In his 23 years living in Reno, Sanchez says getting work has been "worse than ever."
As Erik Herzik, the political science chair at University of Nevada-Reno, puts it, Nevada has been "ground zero of the economic meltdown. Nevada's economy has been turned around like we've never seen before." In August, unemployment in the state hit 7.1 percent, its highest rate in 23 years, above the national average of 6.1 percent. Nevada has the nation's highest home foreclosure rate, a position it has held for the last 20 months, with one in every 91 households receiving a foreclosure filing in August, according to RealtyTrac, a researcher and seller of foreclosed homes. Latinos have been particularly hurt by the foreclosure crisis, and are also heavily represented in the state's beleaguered gaming and construction industries.
The Obama campaign believes that the economic pain here will trump other concerns, such as Latino Catholics' conservative stance on abortion, or historical mistrust between the Latino and African-American communities that some speculate could work against Obama.
"Latinos have been hit hard by the struggling economy -- they're some of the hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis," said Jeff Giertz, an Obama campaign spokesperson. "Tourism and casinos are down, where a lot of Latinos work, so they are looking for solutions on the economy."
But the economy isn't the only worry on their minds. Several Latino voters I spoke with expressed deep concern about immigration reform, including putting a stop to government raids that have sent fear through Latino communities with large numbers of undocumented people. Bruno Limon, 18, a supermarket cashier, said he saw Obama on a Spanish language news broadcast recently in which Obama said he was going to stop the raids. "Maybe some of us shouldn't be here," said Limon, who is a U.S. citizen and plans to cast his first ever vote for Obama. "But they're treating us like criminals."
Next page: A secret weapon for the Obama campaign: Migrant workers of a different kind
What small-town America is saying about Obama
Obama in New Mexico: No Latino voter left behind
