Sanders’ Focus On Latino Voters In California Pays Off

Speaker 1: 00:00 Elizabeth Warren ended her democratic presidential bid today after a disappointing finish in super Tuesday States. Warren has not made an endorsement in the race. She was squeezed out by Bernie Sanders who has a loyal base of supporters, especially among the Latino community in California. Latinos turned out for Sanders in large numbers, but why KQBD politics reporter Katie or looks at how he earned their support at a rally in San Jose the weekend before California's primary Bernie Sanders supporters were getting pumped up for the coming election. Among them was Abby Gonzales, a longtime Bernie fan. Speaker 2: 00:38 I've been feeling the burn since 2016. Uh, when I was a college student and uh, I'm working currently at a university and I just feel like his policies and his energy is still relevant and much needed. Speaker 1: 00:51 That's exactly the energy Sanders campaign is trying to generate with voters in general and Latinos in particular, the campaign had an extensive ground game in California and reached out to Latino voters in places other candidates rarely show up. Speaker 3: 01:06 Places like Fresno city college, a Roosevelt high school in East LA Christian Araunah Speaker 1: 01:12 is with the Latino community foundation. He says, the Sanders campaign made a concerted effort to reach Latinos in the communities where they live and he says, the campaign realized it needed to focus on more than just immigration issues. Speaker 3: 01:26 The Latino community foundation actually released the poll on the Eve of the California primary and partnership with wouldn't it be [inaudible] and not the no decisions. And we found that lowering the cost of health care was the top issue for Latinos in the state. It wasn't immigration, although immigration is a very big issue for us, but it was healthcare. Speaker 1: 01:43 But there are differences among Latino voters. For instance, while the foundation's poll found nearly half of those aged 18 to 49 plan to vote for Sanders, just 28% of voters, 50 and older were supporting him. USC sociology professor Manuel pastor says, the divides grow when you consider the Latino populations in other States, Texas, for example, Speaker 3: 02:08 Texas, it's a more conservative, uh, Hispanic floating population. Uh, one that's been more traditional. On the other hand, California has a younger, more left leaning Latino population Speaker 1: 02:21 and Sanders faces additional challenges. His top opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, has proven he can count on support from other large voting blocks, including African Americans and Paul Mitchell with the bipartisan voter data company. Political data says it remains to be seen whether Sanders can draw enough new voters to the polls to remain competitive. One of his big selling points was that he was going to be getting people to turn out that hadn't turned out in a presidential primary in years, and he was going to turn out voters who might be lower income renters students, and I think from the other early, it's still an open question as to whether or not his candidacy was effectively doing that. In the primary, Mitchell points out if Sanders wants to prove he can expand the electorate, he only has a few more States to make it happen. That was KQBD politics reporter Katie or reporting.