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Bernie Sanders is breaking barriers with young Latinos. Now he just needs them to vote
By Gregory Krieg, CNN
Sun December 8, 2019
Excerpt:
In interviews with leading Democratic Latino strategists, pollsters, activists and Sanders' highest-profile backer, Ocasio-Cortez, a common thread emerged: Sanders, bolstered by notable early investments in Latino outreach and underscored by more nuanced messaging than typically directed at this diverse community, has created a growing sense that he might not only win with the community in states like Nevada and California, but chart out a new path for how Democrats seek and earn Latino support.
Still, many of the same observers warned that the Sanders campaign's ambitions are staked on a strategy that demands a break from historical convention -- drawing out young voters. The median age for Latinos in the US today is only about 28 years old, which offers the campaign some reason for optimism. But if Sanders fails, he wouldn't be the first. Since the voting age was reduced to 18 from 21 in 1971, the "youth vote" has repeatedly tantalized liberal campaigns, only to see it underperform relative to their parents' on Election Day.
In its efforts to break that circuit, Sanders' team has made significant new investments and gestures to the Latino electorate.
Though Nevada and California are widely regarded as the first real test of a Democratic primary candidate's Latino support, the Sanders campaign is also make a bet on the growing community in Iowa. According to the State Data Center of Iowa, Latinos made up 6.2% of population in 2018, an increase of more than 135% from 2000. The median age was 24 years old and an overwhelming majority were of Mexican, Puerto Rican or Central American origin.
"Latinos in Iowa have the opportunity to seriously shift a race like this. Especially when we're looking at what some people think is a three-way, four-way, dead heat race," Sanders' Iowa state director Misty Rebik told CNN. "If you can turn out Latinos, I don't know, 2% more than we did last time, we win."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/08/politics/bernie-sanders-young-latino-voters/index.html
