Gaming Michigan’s Presidential Primary With Latino USA Host Maria Hinojosa

Jake Neher/WDET

Super Tuesday was marked by a wave of endorsements from former presidential candidates, a surprise surge for Vice President Joseph Biden and several state victories for Bernie.

All signs are pointing to a two-man race with Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders nearly neck-and-neck in the current delegate count. These two Democratic frontrunners represent distinct wings of the party, tapping into very different segments of the electorate to garner their support. Who is making up the Biden coalition and the Sanders contingency and what do the most recent primary results says about the support behind each candidate?

Click on the player above to hear Latino USA host Maria Hinojosa talk elections, immigration and her trip to Detroit. 

Guests

Maria Hinojosa, host of Latino USA, wonders how much of Biden’s support is from renewed enthusiasm or simply the byproduct of a thinning field.

“Is it really a resounding win for Biden, or was it simply that voters had fewer choices?” says Hinojosa.

She says that while Biden is performing well with black voters, he has considerable ground to make up with Latino voters. Sanders, on the other hand, is thriving in states with high Latino populations.

“The Latino vote is central to the Sanders coalition.”

There are a wide range of issues that Latino voters care about, say Hinojosa, but an important issue is immigration. Hinojosa says it will be important for Biden to acknowledge the mass deportations that occurred under the Obama administration.

Philip Bump, national political correspondent for the Washington Post, says Biden had a truly extraordinary night on Super Tuesday.

“It was a remarkable turnaround. I don’t think people predicted that Biden would’ve won more than one or two states yesterday.”

He says Biden benefited from broad support among black voters throughout the south, as well as voters who had waited later to make up their mind. Bump says these results show Biden’s ability to turnout voters in the general election who may have voted for Trump in 2016.

Melanie Goldberg, legal advisor at Justice For Our Neighbors, says immigration will be a key issue in the election moving forward, especially for Michigan.

Goldberg says many Michigan residents may not realize that according to Customs and Border Protection, all of Michigan is considered an international border.

“The whole state is under the jurisdiction of Customs and Border Patrol,” says Goldberg. This fact makes immigration all the more important for Michigan voters. As for the candidates, Goldberg says that Sanders has been the most vocal on immigration to date. “He has stated exactly what needs to be done.”