Running mate Tim Kaine doesn’t seem to be doing Hillary Clinton any favors with Bernie Sanders supporters, but young Hispanics are another key group not wild about the pick, despite media hype. They don’t care that he speaks Spanish, Quartz reported.
Adam Luna, a spokesman for United We Dream, called Kaine “a conventional choice at an unconventional time.” He expressed a hesitancy on depending on politicians so easily. “But immigrant youth know that we can’t count on political leaders to dismantle the systems that oppress us without relentless pressure,” he said.
Luna said that Kaine’s senate record is “fairly standard” for Democrats, but still pointed out he has done little to stop deportations.
Millennial Hispanics didn’t seem too thrilled either, and saw right past his fluency. “For myself, it’s like, okay cool, it’s fine that he can speak Spanish but that doesn’t matter to me. You can speak Spanish and still have terrible policies,” said María Jaime, 24. She is the board chair of the Hudson Valley Community Coalition in White Plains, New York.
Carolina Bortello, 28, the lead coordinator of Connecticut Students for a Dream, hopes the ticket will replace the “prison-industrial complex” for its effect on the immigrant community. She also wrote off the idea that minorities will suddenly vote for Hillary because of the pick. “I don’t think that just by naming him as [vice president] that it will draw more minority votes to her. The only way that could happen is when he speaks about his policies, if he [opts] to make the president’s policies more friendly to immigrants in the US,” she said.
Donald Trump is struggling with Hispanics but he has made gains with the demographic and with young voters, while Hillary’s lead shrinks. Thirty-three percent of Hispanics 18-29 say they’re undecided according to a recent Harvard IOP poll. The demographic is also affected by low turnout.
If Hillary picked Spanish-speaking Kaine to appeal to Hispanic youth, this isn’t the only time he’s done so. In December her campaign told Hispanic youth that she was their “abuela,” which they promptly rejected on social media.
