Texas Latinos split on Dems

Presidential hopefuls vie for Hispanic vote with no clear favorite

As the Democratic presidential campaigns turn their attention to Texas, they are doing everything they can to create momentum with Latino voters by holding rallies, picking up endorsements of prominent political figures and trying to build a presence in the Hispanic community.

Yet polling shows none of the remaining contenders has locked down the support of that critical demographic as a wide-open race in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary gives Texans a rare chance to play a meaningful role in picking the nominee on March 3.

A new poll by the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs shows U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has the support of 30 percent of Hispanic voters who are likely to vote Democratic. Former Vice President Joe Biden is next at 19 percent with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 17 percent. Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg was the choice of 13 percent, and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was at

12 percent. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar was at 4 percent.

While Sanders leads, 70 percent of Latino voters are scattered among the other candidates.

“It’s never been like this,” said Marc Campos, a longtime Democratic political strategist in Houston.

Campos said in past primary elections, one candidate seemed to have momentum within the Hispanic community. But this year, he said, as in Texas overall, no one has emerged as a clear favorite.

Castro left opening

The shrinking field of candidates in the Democratic primary has had an impact on Latino voters. For many Hispanic leaders in public office, Julián Castro was a top choice in the presidential race until he dropped out at the start of January. And other candidates who had good support in the Latino community, notably Kamala Harris and Beto O’Rourke, dropped out late last year.

The stalemate in winning over Texas Latinos is not for a lack of trying among the top contenders.

Sanders held rallies with predominantly Hispanic audiences in El Paso and San Antonio over the weekend and opened a Houston campaign office in Houston’s East End — a gesture that has not gone unnoticed, Campos said. And Sanders has prominent Hispanics in leadership posts within his Texas campaign, led by his Texas state field director, Chris Chu de León.

Biden recently unrolled an endorsement from U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, the first Hispanic from Houston elected to Congress. He previously picked up an endorsement from former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, who in the 1980s became San Antonio’s first Mexican-American mayor since Texas became a state in 1845.

Warren, who has deep ties to Texas, plans to campaign in San Antonio with Castro by her side on Thursday. And that comes just two weeks after she had surrogates hold a series of rallies with Hispanic women in South Texas as part of what her campaign called its “Latino community engagement tour.” On Friday, Warren won the endorsement of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.

Bloomberg, who has been most aggressive about visiting black voters in Houston, has tried to build inroads with Latino voters as well. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa held town halls on Bloomberg’s behalf in Houston, including a focus on immigration at Talento Bilingue de Houston.

All the attention shows just how important Hispanic voters are to

winning Texas in the primary. The Pew Research Center shows that Texas has 5.6 million eligible voters who are Latino — about 30 percent of the state’s eligible voters — a bigger share of the electorate than any of the earlier voting states including Nevada, where 20 percent of eligible voters are Latino.

Health care a top concern

State Rep. Armando Walle, a Houston Democrat, is one of those still reeling from candidates dropping out. He said Castro and Harris were his top choices. But now with both out, he’s not sure whom he’s backing.

“I’m still undecided,” he said, noting that Warren, Sanders and Bloomberg’s campaigns have all reached out to him looking for an endorsement.

Campos said a lot of elected Hispanic leaders are in the same position. He said by now those community leaders are usually backing someone.

Garcia, the Houston congresswoman who endorsed Biden just a week ago, has noticed it, too.

“I think everybody was being cautious about when they were going to endorse and whether they were going to endorse,” Garcia said.

She said she thinks Biden has the potential to win over the Hispanic community because he’s a proven candidate who comes from a working-class background and is a committed Catholic like a lot of Hispanics in Texas.

“They know him, they trust him,” Garcia said.

But when it comes to key issues in 2020, Sanders could have an advantage over Biden because of his focus on health care and more specifically “Medicare for All,” which would end private insurance in favor of a government health insurance system that covers everyone.

According to a poll released late last week by Univision and Cornell University, health care is the No. 1 issue on the minds of Latino voters. In that poll of 1,000 Hispanic voters nationwide, 25 percent said health care costs were the top issue in their community. That was 6 percentage points higher than any other issue.

Asked about Medicare for All, 83 percent of respondents said they supported the idea compared with just 17 percent who were opposed.

“Let me be as clear as I can be,” Sanders said Saturday night at his rally in San Antonio. “Health care is a human right, not a privilege.”

At that same rally, Sanders stressed early in his speech that if he were elected president, on his first day he would rescind all of Trump’s “racist immigration policies” and restore the legal status of “Dreamers,” who were brought to the country illegally as children but have spent most of their lives in the United States.

Warren has similarly been pitching a Medicare for All plan and has won over supporters in Texas with detailed plans and an emphasis on speaking out for Americans who have been marginalized.

“She is the candidate that can unify the Democratic Party in a way we need to if we are going to beat Donald Trump,” Castro said.

Texas looms large on Super Tuesday when 13 other states will also vote. With 228 pledged delegates up for grabs, the winner of the Texas primary could weigh heavily on who is going to win the Democratic nomination. Early voting is already underway and runs through Friday.

While Democrats are putting on a push to win Texas, President Donald Trump is making the case that Latino voters have prospered during his administration. The campaign has held numerous Latino outreach programs in Texas and has been quick to jab at Democrats campaigning in Texas.

“2020 Democrats can’t compete with the president’s record of success,” Trump Victory spokesperson Samantha Cotten said. “Voters in the Lone Star State know President Trump has delivered record low unemployment for the Latino community and increased job opportunities.”