Democrats head to Nevada hoping to win debate – and crucial Latino support

The Guardian

By Daniel Hernandez

October 12, 2015

Democrats head to Nevada hoping to win debate – and crucial Latino support 

When Democrats hold their first presidential primary debate on Tuesday night in Las Vegas, a labor group known by some as “the de facto Latino vote in Nevada”, the Culinary Union, will host a viewing party just a few blocks away in a red, white and blue organizing hall.

A slogan on the building reads: “In solidarity we will win.” And indeed, the 55,000 hotel workers represented by the Culinary Union are known to swing elections. Their support is credited by many with giving Barack Obama a delegate win in the 2008 Nevada primary. Then the general election. Then re-election in 2012.

Perhaps more than a strong debate performance, an endorsement from the state’s largest union would go a long way in helping Bernie Sanders or Martin O’Malley compete here in the nation’s third primary. The union’s army of kitchen workers, hotel porters, cocktail waitresses and housekeepers are perhaps the only hope those candidates have of catching up to the Clinton ground operation, which began mobilizing in the state in April.

“Hillary has to be considered a heavy, heavy favorite to win the caucus,” Jon Ralston, a political columnist, told the Guardian. “But we’re operating in something of a vacuum because we still don’t know what Culinary will do. It’s not an exaggeration to say that they are the Latino get out the vote operation in the state.”

If conversations with Latinos involved in Nevada politics are any indication, much of that voting bloc is still up for grabs. And they know what they want to hear from the Democrats in Tuesday’s debate.

“We’ll be listening to the candidates’ plans on immigration reform,” Yvanna Cancela, the Culinary Union’s political director, told the Guardian. “As the largest Latino organization in the state, the fact that we have a pathetically broken immigration system is a problem not just for our members but their families.

Also attending the debate party is the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, or Plan, a group that registers poor and minority citizens to vote. “Those communities are hurt worst and first by policies on the environment, on the economy and such,” Laura Martin, the organization’s associate director, said.

Like the Culinary Union, Plan has yet to endorse a campaign. And it probably won’t. “We’d rather endorse raising the minimum wage or passing immigration reform than a candidate,” Martin said. “The issues will never lie to us.”

The state’s most famous undocumented immigrant, Astrid Silva, will also attend Culinary’s debate party. Ever since Barack Obama used her story as a symbol of immigrant aspiration last year, the young college student has worked with other “Dreamers” as a staff member of Plan.

According to Silva, the candidate stirring the most passion in the Latino community thus far is neither Clinton nor Sanders It has been the GOP frontrunner.

“Everyone hates Donald Trump,” she told me. “We register people at bus stops and hear it every day. We had man who has been a US resident for 23 years say he finally wants to become a citizen at age 62 because he doesn’t like Trump.”

More than 7% of Nevada’s 2.8 million residents are undocumented immigrants. That is the largest percentage in the country, and it’s also the reason Obama has announced all of his immigration measures in Las Vegas.

David Damore, a pollster for Latino Decisions, said immigration reform remains the priority for registered Hispanic voters nationwide because two-thirds of them have family, friends or coworkers who are unauthorized immigrants. “It’s a very personal issue,” he said.

Each election cycle, Silva and her fellow Dreamers compete to see how many citizens they can inspire to cast ballots on their behalf, and Trump has apparently made that job much easier.

She said friends who once were apathetic about their cause are now asking how they can get involved. “They’re coming to our rallies,” Silva said. “They’re posting about Trump on Facebook, saying, ‘He better not become our president.’”

The Culinary Union has also used Trump’s words against him in ads supporting a labor movement inside his Las Vegas hotel.

The GOP frontrunner’s remarks about Mexicans are likely to come up in the debate too, and perhaps in the context of the candidate gathering in a state with a 20% Hispanic electorate.

Nevada has only been an early caucus state since 2008, when members of both parties agreed that its diversity made it worthy of competing with Iowa and New Hampshire for increased attention. Rhetorical signals from the Clinton campaign suggest she is prepared to argue that demographics actually make Nevada the most important early primary, should Sanders win the first two.

According to Damore of Latino Decisions, Democrats can likely win the general election in Nevada with two-thirds of the Latino vote.

And winning the Hispanic vote in the primary will be viewed as a bellwether for broader success, according to Ralston. “The issues facing Nevada are the issues facing real America,” Ralston said. “Those other states don’t have a dynamic, growing cosmopolitan city like Las Vegas, which is essentially a melting pot with large Hispanic and Asian populations.

“Poverty, income inequality, growth and development, urban versus rural, healthcare for the uninsured. All the big issues are very acute here,” he added.

Perhaps recognizing the potential to use Nevada as a firewall against her rival’s momentum, Clinton has invested intense resources here. Her campaign has a large paid staff of experienced operatives and offices in several cities. They are already canvassing door to door with bilingual volunteers and conducting phone banks as they continue to increase the size of an already robust team.

And then there’s Sanders, who only announced the hiring of a Nevada field director on Wednesday. His campaign held a kickoff party on Saturday and hopes to open an office next week. And yet despite their lack of organization, there is an undeniable energy among millennial Latinos who might help Bernie 2016 compete.

Jessica Padrón, a young Democrat who volunteered for Clinton in 2008, said: “Right now I’m undecided between Hillary and Bernie. I grew up idolizing Hillary. She is very experienced. She has done a lot to pave the way for women. But she is very much a moderate Democrat of the establishment and that turns me off a bit.”

Padrón said she believes that politicians like Clinton are often compromised by ties they make to advance long careers. “Bernie, on the other hand, is the exception,” she said. “He has no fear. He speaks off the cuff without worrying about who he’ll answer to.”

Delia Delgado, a 29-year-old teacher, said: “Latinos are loyal to the Clintons. If my dad was still alive he would vote for Hillary, and he probably wouldn’t listen to anyone else.”

Delgado doesn’t plan to volunteer for Sanders, but she is “99% sure” she will vote for him if the gets the chance. “Hillary might be too wishy-washy for me,” she said. “I like that Sanders is a lot more liberal. That’s totally more towards what I like.”

Sanders’s field director, Jim Fallow, conceded that the campaign is the underdog while also noting that the enthusiasm expressed by voters such as Delgado and Padrón offers them an advantage. “We have all the energy. We just have to point it in the right direction,” he said.

The Sanders campaign plans to rally supporters on Tuesday night outside the debate on the Las Vegas Strip in a demonstration of their grassroots energy. Some boisterous comments from Bernie himself about immigration and workers’ rights might be more important, though, if the campaign wants to impress a crowd in nearby union hall.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com