Biden vs. Trump: The Race for the Latino Vote in 2020
According to the Pew Research Center, there are 32 million Latinos eligible to vote in the 2020 General Election, which makes Latinos the largest racial minority voting bloc for the first time in history. Like other racial minority groups in the United States, Latinos have historically supported the Democratic Party in presidential elections at a 2 to 1 ratio.
The Latino vote will be particularly important in November as Latinos make up a large chunk of the electorate in key swing states, such as Florida, Nevada, and Michigan.
Given the importance of the Latino vote in 2020, how are presidential candidates courting their vote?
In an op-ed on Vice President Joe Biden’s Latino outreach strategy, Biden is criticized for not building a strong Latino coalition as well as a perceived lack of Latino representation in his campaign.
In interviews, more than 20 Latino political operatives, lawmakers, and activists said they don’t see a game plan from Biden to marshal Hispanic voters effectively in the fall. They said there’s little evidence the campaign is devoting the resources or hiring the staff that task will require — all the more crucial during a pandemic, when reaching and mobilizing Latino voters through in-person canvassing is nearly impossible.
This has led many Latinos to believe that Biden is taking the Latino vote for granted, which explains his relatively low support amongst the Latino population for a Democratic candidate. In addition to a lack of community outreach, many Latinos hold unfavorable views of the Obama Administration’s immigration policies, which broke up millions of Latino families across the country.
During the 2020 Democratic Primary, Bernie Sanders had the clear advantage with Latino voters, who gravitated towards Sanders’ Medicare for All policy as well as his progressive immigration plan.
“Sanders is the only presidential campaign that ever put their money where their mouth is and cleaned everybody else’s clock — that’s a lesson for everyone,” said Tony Cárdenas, a Democratic congressman from Los Angeles who has backed Mr. Biden and serves as the chairman of the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “No campaign should ever think that just because somebody else has scapegoated the Latino community, that’s it — that in and of itself is not going to get it done.”
With Sanders out of the race, Latinos have to make the choice between Biden and Trump. In the 2016 General Election, Trump built his campaign on an anti-immigrant platform, which enraged many Latinos throughout the country. Despite his rhetoric, Trump was still able to obtain 29% of the Latino vote. Trump’s Latino support in 2016 is not far removed from the 31% support Mitt Romney received in the 2012 General Election against President Barack Obama.
Coming into the 2020 General Election, Trump’s rhetoric towards immigrants, Latino immigrants in particular, has not changed much. Trump continues to champion the building of a wall along the Mexican border, which began construction earlier this year. According to a study, 63.7% of Latino voters completely reject the building of the wall. Many see the wall as a symbol of hatred and racism.
The president continues to insist, for example, that Mexico will ultimately pay for a border wall (even though he shut down the federal government in an effort to ensure billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars for it) that will never be built because in Trump’s world — and the base to which he caters — south of our border is home to drug traffickers, gang members, murderers, rapists or yes, even terrorists. We must stop the residents of “shithole” countries from coming here, he tells us.
In terms of voter outreach to the Latino community, the Trump Administration has focused its attention on swing states, like Arizona, Florida, and Nevada. In addition to giving campaign speeches to Latino audiences, Trump created the “Latinos for Trump” group in order to connect Latino voters with Latino members of his administration.
Vice President Joe Biden recently released a Latino agenda that outlines what he plans to accomplish for the Latino community during his presidency. Some highlights from this agenda are below.
Expand access to quality, affordable health care
Make sure Latinos have a fair shot at joining the middle class
Invest in education from birth through 12th grade
Reform our immigration system
Expand access to quality, affordable education and training beyond high school
Reduce incarceration and make our communities safer
When speaking at the Latino Coalition Legislative Summit, President Donald Trump praised his administration for creating a record number of jobs for Latinos. During his speech he said, “We’ve created 3 million new jobs for Hispanic Americans. Hispanic American unemployment has fallen to the lowest rate ever recorded. More than 600,000 Hispanic Americans have been lifted out of poverty; that’s a record.”
While at the summit, Trump also promised Latinos that he would fight to make childcare more affordable, expand opportunity zones, and grow Latino small businesses.
Even though Biden and Trump’s Latino agendas appear quite similar, who do you believe will ultimately fight for the Latino community more while in office?
