Latino group hosts four Democratic hopefuls
Health care, climate, border among issues
Half the remaining Democratic presidential candidates spoke Thursday at a town hall held by the League of United Latin American Citizens at the College of Southern Nevada campus in North Las Vegas.
Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, businessman Tom Steyer and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-minn., discussed issues with reporters from Telemundo and took questions from the audience. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT., took part via live video conference.
The discussions focused on issues affecting the Latin American community, which makes up nearly 30 percent of Nevada’s population. Nevada will be the first true barometer for candidates seeking the support of Latinos and other diverse communities.
Here’s what the candidates said:
Tomsteyer
Steyer emphasized his focus on diversity in his campaign. He said that his campaign is composed of 50 percent people of color, 50 percent women and 30 percent members of the LGBTQ community.
He said his No. 1 focus is climate change, relying on leadership from “the black and brown communities where people can’t breathe without getting asthma or turn on the tap without getting sick.”
He said that if elected, he plans to decriminalize the border, get rid of the border wall, reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and restructure U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Bernie Sanders
Sanders said health care is a human right, not a privilege, and vowed to implement “Medicare for All” as a single-payer system. Under Medicare for All, Sanders said, nobody would have to pay more than $200 a year for prescription drugs, and everyone would be guaranteed health care regardless of employment status.
Sanders said he introduced “the most comprehensive climate change proposal ever introduced by any federal candidate.” He said the plan is based on the principles of the Green New Deal and would work to move away from fossil fuels and toward wind, solar and geothermal energy sources.
Young people are the future, Sanders said, and he wants to listen to and implement the next generation’s ideas. “Your generation is the generation with the energy that we need to help us old people transform this country,” he concluded.
Pete Buttigieg
When asked about people’s opposition to him based on his sexual orientation, Buttigieg said he is proud of his marriage and is “running to be a president for everybody. I also believe that this country is at its best when we lift up everybody for who we are.”
Buttigieg said he trusts the American people to make the decisions that are best for them because the nation cannot be run on a onesize-fits-all basis.
If elected, Buttigieg vowed to immediately begin uniting families who have been separated at the border. “These family separations are indefensible,” he said.
Amy Klobuchar
Klobuchar said she supports the DREAM Act and DACA but also pushes for bipartisan immigration reform. “I think a lot of the Republicans do not want to cross Donald Trump right now, but there are a lot of them that know we need to get it done” because “immigrants don’t diminish America; they are America.”
Klobuchar said she wants to bring in less-expensive drugs from other countries to lower the cost of prescription drugs, especially insulin. She also hopes to have Medicare negotiate lower prices for drugs and cap prescription drug prices.
“I believe that if you’re going to have a functioning economy, you have to have shared prosperity,” Klobuchar said. “People have to be a part of that economy.”