New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham may not help Joe Biden coax Latino Democrats he desperately needs to the polls in November.
Lujan Grisham, 60, is being considered as a possible running mate for Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee. Biden’s vetting team even asked for a list of references from Lujan Grisham, a House member for six years before winning New Mexico’s governorship in 2016.
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But being the country’s first Latina Democratic governor may not be enough to attract significant support from the community, an important voting bloc with increasing political clout, making her a less-than-ideal running mate pick for Biden
Lujan Grisham told Biden during a Wednesday fundraiser the former vice president was “exactly what we need,” as she and other governors manage the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout.
Yet some Latino Democrats have been less enthusiastic, complaining about his ties to former President Barack Obama’s deportation of millions of illegal immigrants.
A CNN poll published this week gave Biden a commanding 14-percentage point lead on President Trump five months before the Nov. 3 general election. However, the survey also underscores Biden’s deficit with Latinos. Compared to 2016, Biden appears to be underperforming then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s final figures by double digits.
An estimated 14 million Latinos will vote in 2020, according to UNIDOS US and Latino Decisions research. The number of Latino eligible voters registered voters, and those who actually cast ballots have steadily climbed since 2004. Those exact voters will prove pivotal in states Biden wants to win this cycle. That includes Arizona, Florida, Nevada, and Texas.
“There’s no question the Latino community’s important to this state and to the country. You’re a major reason for our economic growth. You’re a major reason why Texas is now a swing state,” Biden told the Texas Democratic Convention last weekend.
To assist with outreach, Biden last month put together a new coalitions department based on former President Barack Obama’s re-election bid. Jason Rodriguez, Clinton’s Latino vote director, is the team’s second-in-command.
But Gabriel Sanchez, a University of New Mexico politics professor connected with Latino Decisions, wasn’t convinced picking Lujan Grisham would boost Biden’s chances. More than half of Latinos nationwide don’t know her well enough to have a strong opinion of her, Sanchez told the Washington Examiner.
“Going with an outside-the-box pick like our governor here in New Mexico might not give them the big splash they are looking for,” he said.
To Sanchez, Lujan Grisham’s leadership during the coronavirus outbreak had showcased her ability to take it to Trump when required. It’s demonstrated her healthcare knowledge and experience, too, as New Mexico’s former secretary of health, who once ran her own health insurance consulting firm.
Healthcare is routinely Latinos’ No. 1 voting issue, and was one of the reasons many backed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primary, Sanchez said.
Lujan Grisham, the daughter of a dentist and homemaker, sits slightly to the left of Biden on the political spectrum. For instance, the former Bernalillo County commissioner proposed making the state’s public universities tuition-free for residents.
Yet the pair share a tragic history that could overcome their political differences. Biden often brings up the deaths of his first wife Neilia, daughter Naomi, and son Beau on the trail. Lujan Grisham, a mother of two, lost her sister Kimberly to a brain tumor at 21, and her husband Gregory to a brain aneurysm in 2004.
Lujan Grisham, however, still faces difficult conversations with Biden’s vetting team as opposition researchers dig into her past.
Last year, Democratic political operative James Hallinan accused her of grabbing his crotch during a senior campaign staff meeting in 2018. She’s denied the allegation.
The first-term governor was ripped during her gubernatorial bid over lucrative contracts her old firm Delta Consulting was awarded in 2009, 2013, and 2017 to run New Mexico’s high-risk insurance pool as well.
For Sanchez, there were other, more influential headwinds working against Lujan Grisham. For one, there’s the perception that simply having Trump on the ticket will mobilize Latinos in the fall. Roughly half of eligible Latino voters are also under 40, and younger voters aren’t as reliable as their older counterparts, he added.
New Mexico Republican Party spokesman Mike Curtis offered a less nuanced assessment of whether Lujan Grisham would buoy Biden with Latino Democrats.
“President Trump will do very well with the Hispanic vote in New Mexico and nationwide, and it doesn’t matter who Joe Biden picks to be his running mate,” he said.
