Buzzfeed News
By Adrian Carrasquillo
May 29, 2015
Martin O’Malley is set to announce his campaign Saturday in Baltimore, but he has already made a key hire.
Gabriela
Domenzain, former director of Hispanic media for Obama when he garnered
a record 71% of the Latino vote in 2012, is joining O’Malley’s campaign
as the director
of public engagement where she will have a hand in communications,
policy, and political outreach, a campaign source said.
“In
Maryland, you speak to Latinos and they call him the most pro-Latino
governor of the United States,” Domenzain told BuzzFeed News. “In other
states they don’t know
him but they should.”
O’Malley
has talked up his immigration bonafides at events in Iowa and New
Hampshire — the campaign notes that it is part of his stump speech — and
he doesn’t even use
the term immigrants (he uses “new Americans”). Domenzain cited his
record of passing the DREAM Act and giving undocumented immigrants
driver’s licenses but also says he increased government contract
investment to Hispanic-owned small businesses by 133%.
Domenzain,
was considered for the director of Hispanic media position in Hillary
Clinton’s campaign, according to sources with knowledge, and said she
believes Americans
want new voices on the left, especially voices as progressive as
O’Malley.
As
a longshot candidate, the former Maryland governor will need to make
contrasts with Clinton to advance. Although he has a long and liberal
record on immigration, Clinton
has made immigration a priority in the early weeks of her campaign —
outlining specific action she would take as president, and plainly
suggesting she would go even further with executive action than
President Obama has if Congress does not make changes to
U.S. immigration policy.
But
Luis Miranda, former director of Hispanic media in the Obama
administration, also said both campaigns should not mistake immigration
policy for being enough on Latino
outreach.
“Engaging
Latino voters takes not insulting them like Republicans do, but also
the fact that they are Americans and care about a lot of things, like
the economy,” he said.
Still,
Domenzain who says that she is a single-issue voter when it comes to
immigration, says she came to understand its importance in 1999 in North
Carolina at the first
statewide conference of Latinos when she was staffing the former
president of the National Council of La Raza, Raul Yzaguirre.
A
farmworker walked up to her, shook her hand, and asked, “Why do you
care about me?” On her flight home she realized only her and Yzaguirre
were on the way back from
that event to Washington — and she realized they were the only people
who might advocate for the farmworker.
Domenzain
ties her passion on immigration to O’Malley’s response to the surge of
Central American undocumented minors across the border last summer,
where she says national
leaders like Clinton and Obama said the children should be sent back.
She
was heartened however when O’Malley, speaking at a Democratic Governors
Association press conference last summer, said the country should act
like Americans and give
children “fleeing death” refuge. “That brought the possibility of
dignity back to the conversation and turned my head,” she said.
Domenzain
also pointed to the recent Clinton hire of an immigration activist who
was undocumented and has a mixed status family as a key moment in the
run-up to the Democratic
nomination.
“Hillary
Clinton’s campaign has hired Lorella Praeli, an incredible advocate
who’s lived the broken system,” she said. “I’m very excited that the
immigration debate will
be elevated because we have people like Gov. O’Malley and his whole
record has been speaking about this.”
Miranda
made a similar point. “Hispanics should be involved in campaign
positions across the board, it’s similar to how Clinton has a political
director in Amanda Renteria,
it’s important to have diversity throughout the campaign,” he said.
O’Malley
will begin outreach to Latino organizations on Wednesday in his first
event after his presidential announcement at a question and answer
session with the Hispanic
Chamber of Commerce president Javier Palomarez in Washington.
Jose
Parra, a seasoned strategist and former senior advisor to Harry Reid
noted that Domenzain is one of a handful of top Latino Democratic
operatives and said he respects
the fact that O’Malley is putting a Hispanic in a position where they
can guide the conversation around the campaign as a whole and not just
“implement” Latino strategy.
And
while O’Malley starts off at a major disadvantage against the
frontrunner Clinton, Parra said his presence in the race will help shape
the debate around issues that
matter to progressives and will ensure Clinton stays the course on
those messages and policy positions.
“It makes sure these ideas are defined and battle-tested,” he said. “It winds up strengthening the party in the long run.”
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