What’s behind Biden’s Latino voter problem?
By LAWRENCE UKENYE , ELI STOKOLS and LAUREN EGAN
Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook , your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from producer Raymond Rapada
JOE BIDEN ’s campaign knows it needs to do a better job reaching Hispanic and Latino voters, with some polls showing a precipitous drop in support for the president among this cohort.
But grassroots organizers don’t think the problem is Biden himself. CRISTÓBAL ALEX , a former senior campaign adviser and deputy Cabinet secretary, said a broader array of forces are contributing to the president’s poor numbers.
The way to improve the situation, he argued, would be to emphasize factors like the economy.“Some of the gains that Trump made were because of concerns about Covid and an economic downturn,” said Alex, founding president of the Latino Victory Fund.
Hispanic voters’ perception of the post-pandemic economy and persisting inflation are what he attributes to the decline in support for Biden, Alex said: The health and economic impacts of the pandemic hit Latinos at a disproportionately […]