Newsom rallies Latino voters by warning of GOP hazards
Gov. Gavin Newsom made a campaign stop in San Francisco Tuesday to try to jumpstart support from Latino voters, who have been slow to embrace the Democrat in the recall election set for Sept. 14.
While Latino voters comprise roughly 27% of California’s electorate, they account for only 17% of the mail-in ballots returned so far, according to Political Data, a Sacramento political firm that is tracking returns. Their turnout could be key to whether Newsom remains in office, given that about two-thirds of Latino voters typically back Democrats in California.
Activists and community organizers say that many Latino families — who have shouldered a disproportionate amount of the impact from the COVID pandemic — have been more focused on trying to get their families back on track than on an off-calendar recall election.
“I am offended when somebody says that we (Latino voters) are slow in getting there,” said Olga Miranda,
president of SEIU Local 87, which represents 5,000 members in San Francisco. “We don’t vote for any clown. We’re voting for somebody that has stood with us and defended our communities at a moment that we needed it.”
That person would be Newsom, Miranda said. She and others predicted that the share of Latino voters would increase from its current level. The last few days of calls and texts have shown recall opponents that more Latino voters are tuning into the election as they realize what could be at stake if a Republican candidate were to replace Newsom.
“I don’t think (the slower turnout) is something against (Newsom),” said Tracy Gallardo, a member of San Francisco’s Latino Task Force. “I think we just we need to get the message out to the Latino voters about how much of an impact that will be if we have someone other than a Democrat winning.”
Newsom defended his record, saying that many of his policies — like universal transitional kindergarten for 4-yearolds and an expansion of after-school and summer school programs — will disproportionately help the Latino community.
Newsom spent a sizable chunk of the 12 minutes he addressed the audience invoking former President Donald Trump, who remains unpopular in California’s Latino community because of his hardline immigration policies and racist rhetoric about Mexican immigrants bringing crime across the nation’s southern border. And, of course, Newsom mentioned conservative talk show host Larry Elder, who polls say is the leading candidate to replace him should he be recalled, and linked him to Trump.
He warned that a GOP governor could portend a return to the days of Proposition 187, the 1994 voter ballot measure — championed by GOP Gov. Pete Wilson — that would have cut off undocumented immigrants from public education and non-emergency health care. Voters approved it, but the courts eventually threw it out.
“I want to remind you of the xenophobia and the nativism,” Newsom said. “Some of you are too young to remember 1994. I’m not.”
Elder, Newsom said, “is to the right, I would argue the far right, of Donald Trump.”
Newsom said he hoped that a planned campaign visit with Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday in the Bay Area would help energize base Democratic voters. The same goes for President Biden, whom the White House signaled will campaign in California for Newsom before Election Day on Tuesday.
But Gallardo said those kind of star appearances “won’t do anything for Latino voters.”
She motioned to the dozens of people making calls Tuesday for Newsom and said, “People right here will help get the Latino voters out. People they trust.”