Obama campaign launches Spanish-language campaign strategy and skips TX, CA

The Obama campaign rolled out their Latino/Hispanic strategy in a conference call hosted by Congressman Xavier Becerra (D-CA). Congressman Becerra unveiled the new Spanish language radio ad entitled Bootstraps.

The ad will be rolled out in Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, and Nevada, key battleground states with Hispanic populations.

New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanic-origin citizens---43% of the population. Texas and California tie for second place with 35% of the population of Hispanic-origin. That means California is home to 12.4 million Hispanics and Texas is home to 7.8 million, and on average at least 1 in 10 households speak Spanish (per the 2005 Census).

Note that neither Texas nor California is on the radio ad air list.

"They are skipping two states where Spanish is spoken the most? That is the most short-sighted strategy I've ever heard of. Seriously, why is it that neither Obama nor Hillary knew how to run a statewide campaign in Texas? So, they're going to spend resources here, but not target Latino voters?" said Vince Liebowitz, Editor & Publisher of CapitolAnnex.com and Chair of the Texas Progressive Alliance, a coalition of more than 40 Texas blogs.

I thought the same thing---as did a variety of Texans I spoke to---so I called the Obama campaign to ask about it.

Shannon Gilson, Communications Director for the Southwest, immediately replied to me with information about the Obama campaign strategy for Hispanic voters, "The Spanish-language ad is currently running in key battleground states. Our advertising buy will evolve in the coming weeks as we continue to aggressively reach out to Hispanic communities across the country."

That sounds promising.

A few months ago when David Axelrod was in Houston, a member of a Hispanic caucus mentioned concern in the Hispanic community about voting for Senator Obama. The McCain campaign and others who oppose Obama have been spreading misinformation about Senator Obama's background and affiliations in Spanish, the man told Mr. Axelrod at the fundraising luncheon. He mentioned that although Senator Obama launched his Snopes-like fightthesmears.com, many Spanish-speaking Hispanics would better trust information received in their first language and were unlikely to browse an English Web site. He asked Mr. Axelrod if the Obama campaign planned to launch a Spanish-language outreach to Hispanic voters.

At the time, Mr. Axelrod said the campaign was aware of the need and planned to consider an appropriate strategy.

The Bootstraps radio ad is clearly the first wave of that strategy. It offers insight into Senator Obama by outlining his background, demonstrating that he can relate to the Hispanic culture, and revealing what he provides for Hispanic voters.

“Latinos can relate to Senator Obama’s background of hard work and commitment to family and community,” said Federico Pena, National Campaign Co-Chair. “Senator Obama is serious about winning the Latino vote and this Spanish language ad is but one among a variety of his efforts to build on the progress of the primary. ”

The final script reads:

[VO:] Some people have power and connections.

But most of us have to make our own way through life.

This is true even for the man who could become the next President … Barack Obama.

He grew up without a father – raised by his mother with the support of his grandparents.

Obama never forgot his roots…

He worked with churches to help families get job training and after-school care for their children.

In the State Senate, he passed a law that helped reduce the welfare roles by over 80% by helping families to secure jobs.

And despite the political pressure, Obama has stood with us for immigration reform and spoke out for our veterans.

It’s time we had a President who understands we all deserve a chance to make our own way.

It's important that the Obama campaign outreach extend to Hispanic voters, but more than that, the campaign needs to be careful to not oversimplify Hispanic voters and only appeal to a single issue: immigration (even though it is a key issue). Hispanic citizens have a spectrum of issues that concern them, including business.

Hispanic-owned businesses have been increasing. In 2002, there were 1.6 million Hispanic-owned businesses with almost $230 billion in revenue. If that kept increasing at the same rate, those businesses would be well over 2 million strong by now. Hispanic voters, therefore, are also concerned about the economy, business, taxes, and more.

The Obama campaign also needs to understand that the Hispanic and Latino cultures vary by origin and region. One size won't fit all.

But most of all, they need to not take winning California Hispanic voters for granted, nor should they take losing Texas as a certainty. The right strategy can bring a big win, or a big loss.

Come to Texas, Senator Obama, and say hola. We're all waiting to hear you, in person. If you come, you'll benefit the downline candidates greatly. If you alienate Hispanic voters, you'll cost the downline candidates greatly. It's that simple.

After all, we're talking about at least 8 million voters here.

However, I'm glad to hear that this is merely the first step and that Obama is not taking his 59% to 29% lead over McCain with Hispanic voters for granted.

Stay tuned for a follow-up article about this topic, and also make sure to check in with Marisa Treviño at Latina Lista for a great perspective on Latina issues.

Julie Pippert also writes at Using My Words and Moms Speak Up.

Comments

[Lawyer Mama]

I wonder if they've considered a Spanish version of the Obama website. It seems like it would be less expensive and yet still reach more hispanic voters on all the issues, instead of limiting it geographically and topically.

[Julie Pippert]

At that lunch with David Axelrod I mention, the same Hispanic gentleman offered to be a part of a Web site of outreach translation to Spanish. I believe they got his contact info, but with 1 in 10 speaking Spanish fluently in the US, it can't be too hard to find someone to do it. I think it's a spectrum of willingness, how far to go. We'll see. I don't have a handle, yet, on the distance we're talking about here.

An intriguing question is whether they'd allow a group to do their own, if they so wanted.

[cynematic]

Even though CA is a blue state, we 1) can't take that for granted, and 2) we're right next door to two battleground states, NV and AZ, which also have a lot of Spanish speaking people.

What better strategy than to encourage a lot of California Spanish-fluent Obama voters than to get them a few hundred miles away talking up our candidate to fellow Spanish-speakers?

You've got me wondering what plans are in SoCal for any efforts along those lines. I'll try to find out and report back.

[cynematic]

Here's a little footnote to my comment above:

Today's story about our LA mayor Villaraigosa as an important Obama surrogate (despite being a Clinton supporter at first): http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-coalition24-2008jul24,0,4757723.story

Glad to see he's wearing his big girl panties (so to speak) and totally on board the Obama train.

Congresmen Becerra I know from other issues and he appeared at the APIA Vote Town Hall as Obama's surrogate in Irvine, CA several weeks back.

While that's all well and good, it's the grassroots piece that's missing for me. Still digging for what I can find on that.

[Natalie]

I'm quite disappointed that he's left AZ out of the loop. It's as if he's given up on us and we don't count just because it's McCains state. Is my vote not worth anything to him? I am not hispanic/latino or whatever PC term it is, but I think it's very short-sighted for him to completely ignore AZ. If he came here and saw all of the Obama bumper stickers, he might realize that AZ is a potential battleground state as well.

[Natalie]

That comment wasn't meant to sound insensitive - I hope it didn't come out that way.

I'm just TRYING to say that the spanish speaking voters here should be considered just as important as anywhere else.

[jaelithe]

I don't think the Obama campaign is ignoring any states-- they do say they have a 50 state strategy, and they are putting paid staff in every state.

However, I do think they need to step up the outreach to Spanish speakers in all states, and not just focus on a few.

[Daisy]

My community, despite its northern location, has a growing Latino population. As Obama plans his 50-state strategy, I hope he'll run the Spanish language ads on radio or TV in areas like mine.

[Julie Pippert]

Jaelithe...to be clear, I haven't said they're ignoring any states or am overlooking that they are putting paid staffers in all 50.

I am discussing the Hispanic outreach radio ad, which is only launching in a select few states and isn't launching in numbers two and three largest Hispanic populations.

I deeply appreciate your however. :)

Daisy, I agree. I'm trying to get more info.

Cyn, I've been doing some digging on local efforts and they are pretty good here.

Natalie, I got what you meant but glad anyway that you clarified,just in case. I think you feel somewhat similarly to me. I'm glad you commented.

[cynematic]

Well, it sounds like there's a Camp Obama Sesion Latina training in Vegas this weekend, and recently Obama spoke to Latino leaders at LULAC in DC and the La Raza conference in San Diego. It may also be that outside groups are helping with general GOTV efforts. I'd imagine the effort to pull together issues for the DNC platform from a Latino perspective is also drawing together community groups and advocates (I know APAs are in the process of drawing up their platform proposals like we did at the MOMocrats/SVMoms brunch.)

[jaelithe]

Oh Julie I was responding to Natalie's comment about totally leaving AZ out of the loop, not your post. I just wanted to reassure Natalie that we, the MOMocrats, have in fact asked the campaign directly about this very issue and they have said that they can at least guarantee paid staff everywhere. But of course they can still do better, and should if they want to secure the Hispanic vote.

[John cobarruvias]

I sure wish more of the "new" people getting involved in politics would get involved in politics and come out to walk with us. We could use all the new legs we can get!

[Janie Starr]

do you have the above ad text in spanish. please send if you do.
gracias.

[Janie Starr]

do you have the above ad text in spanish. please send if you do.
gracias.