在国家对系统性种族主义进行清算的时刻，前副总统柯维德-19的影响和警察的野蛮行为暴露无遗乔·拜登越来越多的人呼吁选择一位有色人种女性作为他的竞选伙伴。大部分注意力都集中在他的候选人名单上的黑人女性身上，但是一些战略家和拉美裔领导人希望确保竞选团队也认真考虑合格的拉美裔候选人。
虽然拜登报道的副总统候选人名单可以说是总统历史上最多样化的，但他的竞选团队似乎只是在审查一位杰出的拉丁裔候选人。
在接受美国广播公司采访时，六名以上的拉丁裔活动人士、民主党领导人和特工表示，找到一名拉丁裔竞选伙伴将使拜登处于一个强有力的位置，赢得压倒性的选民支持，有望在11月成为最大的非白人投票集团。
他们认为这将提高他在关键人群中的重要性，他在初选中与这些人群斗争，是美国增长第二快的人群。
不管拜登选择谁加入他的阵营，他们都希望确保多元化的拉美裔人口在他的竞选中拥有强大的声音。
拜登的主要支持者、得克萨斯州民主党众议员西尔维娅加西亚说:“拉丁裔选民的投票是通往白宫的道路。”“这将是他竞选战略中非常重要和关键的一部分。”
拉丁美洲人有进步的空间
根据6月份公共广播公司/NPR/玛丽斯特学院的民意调查，拜登在拉丁裔选民中遥遥领先特朗普(59%-39%)，但他仍然落后于希拉里·克林顿和前总统巴拉克·奥巴马，后者分别在2016年和2012年赢得了66%和71%的拉丁裔选民皮尤。
在爱荷华州和内华达州的党团会议以及德克萨斯州的初选中，他也输给了桑德斯，但他在佛罗里达州的支持率有所提高，并在亚利桑那州与桑德斯持平，因为该党在他的竞选活动中团结一致。
11月份有3200万拉丁裔选民有资格投票，拉丁裔领导人表示，选择一个拉丁裔竞选伙伴可以帮助拜登提高他在拉丁裔选民中的份额，并推动更多的拉丁裔选民——多年来被民调机构认为是沉睡的人口统计巨人——投票。
皮尤研究中心的数据显示，2016年，大约48%的拉美裔选民投了票，相比之下，59.6%的黑人和65.3%的白人投了票。总的来说，1270万拉丁美洲人2016年投票，2012年为1120万。
拉丁美洲胜利组织的总裁兼首席执行官纳塔莉·雷耶斯说:“我们在2016年登记了很多拉丁美洲人，但我们想当然地认为人们会站出来。”“当拉丁美洲人在投票时，拉丁美洲人确实会出来投票，因此很明显，这对于动员副总统拜登周围的拉丁美洲人社区来说非常重要。”
拉丁裔选民也是该国最年轻的种族和民族群体之一，他们可能会影响一些竞争激烈的州的选举结果。
2020年6月9日，亚特兰大，人们排队等待在佐治亚州的初选中投票。乔治亚州、西弗吉尼亚州、南卡罗来纳州、北达科他州和内华达州的选民正在举行冠状病毒大流行的初选。以利亚·新时代/盖蒂影像
北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的副教授、该大学拉丁美洲教育和文化中心的联合创始人保罗·夸德罗斯说:“这些人是新选民，他们经历了许多艰难困苦，经历了许多疏远，特别是在现任政府的领导下，他们被激励去做些什么。”
在亚利桑那州和佛罗里达州，拉美裔选民占所有合格选民的20%至25%，他们也可能在威斯康星州、密歇根州和宾夕法尼亚州发挥关键作用。2016年，特朗普在这些地方以不到8万张选票的总和胜出。
当然，获得拉美裔选民的选票并不是一个放之四海而皆准的方法，例如，在亚利桑那州，拜登在年长的拉美裔选民中表现更好，而桑德斯在年轻选民中表现更好。共和党人传统上享有佛罗里达州古巴裔美国人社区的支持，特朗普在那里失去了拉丁裔选民的支持，但在2016年赢得了54%的古巴选民的支持。在全国范围内，特朗普在2016年获得了大约29%的拉美裔选票，与罗姆尼在2012年的27%持平。
新墨西哥州长正在考虑中
据知情人士透露，新墨西哥州州长、边境州州长、前国会议员、新墨西哥州卫生部长卢汉·格里森(Lujan Grisham)正在接受拜登副总统竞选团队的审查。但她可能是唯一考虑中的拉丁人，因为内华达州的参议员凯瑟琳·科尔特斯·马斯特在5月份退出了选举。
专家和她的支持者告诉美国广播公司新闻，格里沙姆在COVID-19大流行、刑事司法改革和移民方面的管理经验和处理方式将使她成为一个全面的人选。
库扎多斯说:“这是一个很好的平衡的经验，作为一个行政和管理一个国家，并处理各种各样的问题，在管理一个国家。”"同时也是一个特殊群体的新面孔."
格里森通过发言人拒绝了采访请求，与其他一些候选人相比，她对这个角色的兴趣不那么公开。
新闻秘书诺拉迈耶斯萨克特告诉美国广播公司新闻:“她一直在与竞选团队讨论如何才能最好地支持竞选，提高投票率，确保民主党获胜，这些讨论正在进行。”
拉美公民联合联盟主席多明戈·加西亚表示，她的当选将对拉美裔选民产生“改变游戏规则”的作用，并对她的潜在候选人身份没有得到更多关注表示失望。
他说:“这几乎就像一个象征性的名字，以确保至少有一个拉丁美洲在混合。”
对塔尼亚·温祖塔·卡拉斯科来说，拜登挑选一个拉丁裔人做副总统并不是当务之急。她表示，移民和刑事司法改革等立场问题更为重要。
恩佐塔·卡拉斯科说:“事实上，我更希望有一个位置好的人，而不是一个没有我们需要的价值观的拉丁人。”“我会为像斯泰西·艾布拉姆斯这样的人感到兴奋，我会对像卡马拉·哈里斯这样的人感到失望。”我更关注的是这个人是否是拉丁裔。”
拜登的竞选团队也在审查加州的参议员卡马拉·哈里斯、马萨诸塞州的伊丽莎白·沃伦和伊利诺伊州的谭美·达克沃斯，以及佛罗里达州的众议员瓦尔·戴明斯和加州的凯伦·巴斯。
苏珊·赖斯曾在奥巴马白宫担任总统的国家安全顾问，也被认为是考虑的对象。
著名的黑人民主党人认为，提名一名非洲裔美国女性作为他的竞选伙伴，可能有助于拜登在黑人选民中进一步提高自己的地位。去年11月，黑人选民在南卡罗来纳州恢复了他的初选，并提高了中西部和南部几个关键州的投票率。
民主党捐款人、“有色民主”创始人史蒂夫·菲利普斯在接受美国广播公司采访时表示:“这一选择将发生在美国对待非裔美国人的种族清算时刻，这是他必须面对的现实。”
新墨西哥州州长米歇尔·卢汉·格里森2020年3月18日在新墨西哥州圣达菲州众议院的新闻发布会上证实了一种新的冠状病毒感染，这种病毒与旅行没有明显联系摩根·李/美联社，档案
拜登竞选团队拒绝对副总统选举过程发表评论。
曾担任伯尼·桑德斯总统竞选高级顾问的民主党战略家查克·罗查(Chuck Rocha)在接受美国广播公司(ABC News)采访时谈到一位拉美裔竞选伙伴时说:“这是副总统人选纯粹出于需要而做出的最明智的战略举措。”
亨利·希斯内罗斯曾在比尔·克林顿总统时期担任住房和城市发展部长，并在1984年接受了沃尔特·蒙代尔总统竞选班子的审查。他说，拜登还应该考虑如何选择竞选伙伴来影响他的联盟的各个部分。
他说:“你必须考虑非裔美国选民会怎么说，进步选民会怎么说，这取决于个人。”
竞选团队和政策也可以帮助拉丁裔选民
除了选择竞选伙伴之外，拉丁裔领导人告诉美国广播公司新闻，拜登还可以通过关注对他们社区重要的问题，以及召集不同的竞选团队来激励选民。
美国前住房与城市发展部部长希斯内罗斯说:“副总统还有其他方式可以向拉美人解释，他们正在谈论与移民、教育、就业和工资相关的具体问题，这些问题实际上是拉美人社区的头等大事。”
众议员托尼·卡德纳斯(Tony Cá rdenas)是国会拉美裔核心小组的竞选部门BOLD PAC的主席，他指出罗查在桑德斯竞选中的角色是这位佛蒙特州参议员在初选早期在拉美裔选民中表现优于拜登的原因之一。
“伯尼·桑德斯证明了这不是火箭科学，这真的很简单。卡德纳斯说:“你雇用一个有文化能力的人，并赋予他们权力，而这个人在拉丁裔选民中继续雇用和赋予其他有文化能力的人权力。”
“谁在真正掌权的房间里，就像我和伯尼在一起一样?”罗卡说。“只有这样，你才能真正在竞选中产生社会影响和改变。”
Unzueta Carrasco说:“我确实认为，在他的竞选中，需要有更多的拉丁裔人担任要职，我敦促竞选团队与正在组织社区活动的拉丁裔人合作。”
在接受美国广播公司采访时，拜登的高级顾问朱莉·查韦斯·罗德里格斯(Julie Chvez Rodriguez)说，她和高级顾问克里斯托瓦尔·亚历克斯(Cristóbal Alex)与竞选领导层和前副总统“在一个房间里”，而且竞选团队已经努力将拉美裔员工纳入各个层面。
根据上个月竞选团队发布的数据，超过三分之一的拜登团队成员是有色人种，他的团队中大多数是女性。
她说:“坦率地说，我们正在以这样一种方式发展这个组织，在初选期间，我们的资源和能力都非常有限。”
2020年6月23日，纽约市，布鲁克林博物馆投票站，选举委员会的员工和志愿者们穿着个人防护装备帮助选民进行纽约民主党总统初选。安吉拉·维斯/法新社通过盖蒂图片
拜登最近成立了一个由前科罗拉多州参议员肯·萨拉查领导的拉美裔领导委员会，成员包括前奥巴马劳工部长希尔达·索利斯、卡德纳斯和其他著名的拉美裔代理人。
他的竞选团队还开始用高度复杂的广告来吸引西班牙裔选民，这些广告是根据种族和特定社区量身定制的。
今年5月加入该活动的查韦斯·罗德里格斯说:“了解我们社区的各种复杂性和多样性，对于真正了解是什么在推动他们投票至关重要。”
她说竞选组织一个联盟部-重点针对不同的选民群体，包括族裔和宗教群体-与其数字化组织一起，也将有助于该运动的拉丁裔外联。
“即使是在COVID时代，我们都在以谨慎的乐观态度和对我们不仅仅想赢得一个选举，但在此过程中，要增强我们社区的能力。”
How a running mate, diverse campaign could help Biden with Latino voters
At a moment of national reckoning over systemic racism brought to light by both the impact of the COVID-19 and police brutality, former Vice PresidentJoe Bidenis facing increasing calls to pick a woman of color as his running mate. Much of the attention has focused on the black women on his short list, but some strategists and Latino leaders want to make sure that the campaign is also seriously considering qualified Latina candidates.
While Biden’s reported shortlist for vice president is arguably the most diverse in presidential history, his campaign only appears to be vetting one prominent Latina candidate for the role.
In interviews with ABC News, more than half-a-dozen Latino activists, Democratic Party leaders, and operatives said that tapping a Latina running mate would put Biden in a strong position to win the overwhelming support of voters poised to become the largest nonwhite voting bloc in November.
They argue it will improve his importance with a key demographic with whom he struggled in the primary and is the second-fastest growing group in the United States.
And regardless of who Biden picks to join his ticket, they want to ensure that the diverse Latino population also has a strong voice in his campaign.
“The Latino vote is the road to the White House,” said Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, a prominent Biden supporter. “It’s going to be a very important and critical part of his campaign strategy.”
Room to improve with Latinos
While Biden has a wide lead over Trump among Latinos - 59%-39%, according to a June PBS/NPR/Marist College poll - he still trails Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama, who won 66% and 71% of the Latino vote in 2016, and 2012, respectively, according toPew.
He also lost their vote to Sanders in the Iowa and Nevada caucuses and Texas primary, but improved on his numbers in Florida and pulled even with Sanders in Arizona as the party coalesced around his campaign.
With 32 million Latinos eligible to vote in November, Latino leaders say the selection of a Latina running mate could help Biden improve both his share of the Latino vote and propel more Latinos - for years considered a sleeping demographic giant by pollsters - to the polls.
Roughly 48% of eligible Latinos voted in 2016, compared to 59.6% of blacks and 65.3% of whites, according to Pew. Overall, 12.7 million Latinosvoted in 2016, compared to 11.2 million in 2012.
“We registered a lot of Latinos in 2016, but we took for granted that people were going to come out,” said Nathalie Reyes, the president and CEO of Latino Victory. “When Latinos are on the ballot, Latinos do come out and vote, and so obviously that would be really important to mobilize the Latino community around Vice President Biden.”
Latino voters, who are also among the youngest racial and ethnic groups in the country, could shape the results in a number of battleground states.
“These are new voters, these are voters who have come up through a lot of hard hardship, they've experienced a lot of alienation, particularly with this current administration and they're galvanized to do something about it,” said Paul Cuadros, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-founder of the University’s Latino educational and cultural center.
In Arizona and Florida, Latinos make up between 20-25% of all eligible voters, and could also play a key role in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where Trump won in 2016 by less than 80,000 votes combined.
Capturing the Latino vote is of course not a one size fits all approach, in Arizona, for example, Biden performed better with older Hispanic voters while Sanders did well with younger ones. And Republicans have traditionally enjoyed the support of the Cuban-American community in Florida, where Trump lost the Latino vote but won 54% of the Cuban vote in 2016. Nationwide, Trump received roughly 29% of the Latino vote in 2016, in line with Romney’s 27% in 2012.
New Mexico governor under consideration
New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham, a border state governor, former member of Congress and New Mexico health secretary, is being vetted by the Biden campaign for vice president, according to sources familiar with the process. But she may be the only Latina under consideration, after Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada withdrew her name from the process in May.
Grisham's executive experience and handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, criminal justice reform and immigration would make her a well-rounded pick, experts and her supporters told ABC News.
“That's a nice balance of experience being an executive and running a state and dealing with all kinds of issues in terms of running a state,” said Cuardos. “As well as being a fresh face for a particular community.”
Grisham, who declined an interview request through a spokesperson, has been less public about her interest in the role than some of the other candidates.
“She’s been in conversations with the campaign about how she can best support the campaign, boost turnout and ensure a Democratic victory, and those conversations are ongoing,” press secretary Nora Meyers Sackett told ABC News.
Domingo Garcia, the president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said her selection would be a “game-changer” with Latino voters, and expressed frustration that her potential candidacy had not gained more attention.
“It’s almost like a token name to make sure that there’s at least one Latina in the mix,” he said.
For Tania Unzueta Carrasco, co-founder and political director of progressive Latino organizing group Mijente, Biden picking a Latina for vice president isn’t a priority. She said stances issues like immigration and criminal justice reform are more important.
“I actually would much rather have someone who's good on positions than someone who was Latina that doesn’t have the values we need them to have,” said Unzueta Carrasco. “ I would be excited for someone like Stacey Abrams, I'd be very disappointed with someone like Kamala Harris. And I've been paying attention more to that than whether the person is Latino or not.”
Biden’s campaign is also vetting, among others, Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, along with Reps. Val Demings of Florida and Karen Bass of California.
Susan Rice, who served in the Obama White House as the president’s national security adviser, is also thought to be under consideration.
Prominent Black Democrats have argued that naming an African-American woman as his running mate could help Biden improve his standing even further with Black voters, who resuscitated his primary campaign in South Carolina and boost turnout in several key Midwestern and southern states in November.
“This choice is going to be taking place in a moment of racial reckoning regarding this country’s treatment of African-Americans, and that’s just a reality that he’s going to have to speak to,” Steve Philips, a Democratic donor and founder of Democracy in Color, told ABC News.
The Biden campaign declined to comment on the vice-presidential selection process.
“It's the smartest strategic move that could be made with the vice presidential pick just based out of pure need,” Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist who served as a senior adviser to Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, told ABC News about a Latina running mate.
Henry Cisneros, who served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton, and was vetted by Walter Mondale’s presidential campaign in 1984, said Biden should also consider how the selection of a running mate could impact every part of his coalition.
“You have to think about what would African-Americans voters say about that, progressive voters say about that, depending on the person,” he said.
Campaign staff and policy can also help reach Latino voters
Outside his selection of a running mate, Latino leaders told ABC News that Biden can also galvanize voters by focusing on issues important to their communities, and by putting together a diverse campaign staff.
“There are other ways that the vice president can make the case to Latinos and they are speaking to the specific issues related to immigration, related to education, related to jobs and wages that really are the top priorities for the Latino community,” said Cisneros, the former HUD secretary.
Rep. Tony Cárdenas, the chairman of BOLD PAC, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ campaign arm, pointed to Rocha’s role on the Sanders campaign as one reason why the Vermont senator outperformed Biden with Latino voters early in the primary.
“Bernie Sanders proved it’s not rocket science, it’s real simple. You hire and empower a culturally competent individual, and that person continues to hire and empower others who are culturally competent when it comes to the Latino vote,” Cárdenas said.
“Who’s in the room [where] the actual power sits, like I was with Bernie?” said Rocha. “That's when you know you can really make social impact and change in a campaign.”
“I do think that there needs to be more Latinos in his campaign in positions of power and I would urge the campaign to work with Latinx people who are doing community organizing,” said Unzueta Carrasco.
In an interview with ABC News, Biden senior adviser Julie Chávez Rodríguez, the granddaughter of the late labor and civil rights leader César Chávez who also served in the Obama White House, said she and senior adviser Cristóbal Alex are “in the room” with campaign leadership and the former vice president, and that the campaign has worked to include Latino staff at every level.
More than one-third of Biden's staff are people of color, and a majority of his team are women, according to data released by the campaign last month.
“We are growing the organization in ways that, frankly, during the primary there were a lot more limited resources and a limited ability to do that,” she said, noting that the campaign has named Latina state directors in Arizona and Nevada.
Biden recently launched a Latino Leadership Committee, led by former Colorado senator Ken Salazar, that includes former Obama Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Cárdenas, and other prominent Latino surrogates.
His campaign has also started outreach to Hispanic voters with highly sophisticated ads, tailored to certain areas based on ethnicity and specific communities.
“Understanding all the sort of complexities and diversities of our community is going to be so key to really tapping into what is going to motivate them to vote,” said Chávez Rodriguez, who joined the campaign in May.
She said the campaign’s decision to organize acoalitions department- focused on outreach to different groups of voters, including ethnic and religious groups - together with its digital organizing would also help the campaign’s Latino outreach.
“We all are approaching this, even in the COVID era, with some cautious optimism and a vision for ways that we want to not just win anelection, but empower our communities in the process,” she said.
