Deep Concern Among Democrats About Hillary Clinton's Hispanic Strategy

Following-up from earlier, "Hillary Clinton Struggles in Florida."

One of Hillary's biggest problems in Florida is she can't hold the same numbers of Latinos that Obama did in 2012. Indeed, her shrinking Latino vote could cost her the state, when combined with a lot of folks who've said they're just going to stay home.

I'm loving this phase of the campaign. The Democrats are truly freakin' out, and they get more desperate in the attacks each week. I think the rank-and-file are full of it.

At the Washington Post, "Among Democrats, deep concern about Clinton’s Hispanic strategy" (via Memeorandum):

Lagging support among Hispanic voters for Hillary Clinton and congressional candidates in crucial races has stoked deep concern that the party and the presidential campaign are doing too little to galvanize a key constituency.

While Clinton holds a significant lead over Trump in every poll of Hispanic voters, less clear is whether these voters will turn out in numbers that Democrats are counting on to win. Clinton trails President Obama’s 2012 performance in several Latino-rich states including Florida, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona. In those same states, where Democrats’ goal of retaking the Senate hinge, some down-ballot Democrats remain unknown to many Hispanic voters.

That reality has prompted a flurry of criticism of Clinton’s and the party’s Hispanic strategies. Despite a uniquely favorable environment with Republican Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on undocumented immigrants, Democrats are increasingly worried that the opportunity is slipping away to meet a longstanding party goal of marshaling the nation’s growing Hispanic population into a permanent electoral force. The concerns are compounded by Trump’s recent surge in several battleground states.

“We’re not seeing the Democratic Party take advantage of this moment in time, really looking to leverage more engagement in a more strategic way with our community,” said Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza.

One top criticism is that Clinton waited until this month to launch a sustained campaign of traditional, Spanish-language ads in key markets. Previously, the campaign’s Hispanic strategy centered on reaching millennial voters through new media such as Facebook and YouTube. Its television outreach was produced primarily in English and aimed at bilingual households. According to critics, Clinton missed a chance to deploy a broader effort to target the Hispanic electorate like the one that Obama pioneered four years ago.

“This approach may end up being vindicated on Election Day,” said Fernand Amandi, a veteran strategist who led Obama’s research, messaging and paid media operation for the Hispanic vote in 2012. “I just find it to be more risky than replicating what we know worked, which is the sustained approach that the Obama campaign put in place.”

Clinton aides and her allies insist that they are facing a very different opponent than Obama’s, along with new challenges posed by a Hispanic electorate that grows younger and less reliant on traditional modes of communication with each passing cycle.

The dispute goes to the heart of a debate among Hispanic operatives about how much emphasis should be placed on newer ways of reaching younger Hispanics, who like millennials overall are more resistant to backing Clinton than older Latinos...

Well, yeah, she's old and square. Besides, one too many jalapeños might end up putting her under.

But keep reading.