Hillary, Bernie Make Pitch to Latino Voters at Univision Debate

On Wednesday night, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders participated in the latest Democratic primary debate from the Sunshine State where the candidate’s heated rhetoric matched the balmy Miami weather. With an eye towards the treasure trove of delegates in Florida that will be up for grabs on Tuesday, both Hillary and Bernie picked apart the record of their opponent, especially on the topic of immigration reform.

The debate was co-hosted by the Washington Post and Spanish-language network, Univision and conducted in both Spanish and English in front of a crowd that was eager to hear the candidates differentiate themselves on immigration reform and other topics of interest to Latino voters. For the most part, both candidates agreed on the broadly important components of comprehensive immigration reform – they support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, halting most deportations, and resorting to executive action as president if Congress fails to act.

Despite agreeing on the foundational aspects of immigration reform, both Hillary and Bernie went after the other’s record of past support for immigration reform, often making accusations that got under their opponent’s skin. At one point, Hillary criticized Sanders for opposing immigration reform legislation proposed by the late Senator Ted Kennedy and linked Sanders to the Minuteman vigilante movement that was prevalent a decade ago. As Hillary stated:

And as I said earlier, in 2006, Senator Sanders supported indefinite detention for people facing deportation and stood with the Minutemen vigilantes in  their ridiculous, absurd efforts to, quote, “hunt down immigrants.

In response, Sanders alleged that that was “a horrific and unfair statement” for Hillary to make and he countered by making the point that Hillary opposed providing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants in New York in 2008.

The candidates teetered on the edge of misrepresenting the others’ immigration stance all night, in the latest sign of a tightening primary campaign that has both Bernie and Hillary thinking that they may have to pull out all the stops to carry the Democratic Party’s nomination.

There was an invisible third candidate on the stage on Wednesday night in the form of President Obama. In debates past, Hillary has sought to cast Bernie as too out of step with the Obama Administration on policy topics that Democrats are passionate about, like the Affordable Care Act. However, on Wednesday night, it was Hillary who was the one distancing herself from the Obama Administration. This was a sharp contrast to her efforts in previous weeks to align herself with Obama as she courted African American primary voters in the Deep South. Specifically, Hillary criticized raids launched to round up Central American migrants who had not been granted asylum. As Hillary stated on that topic:

  I do not have the same policy as the current administration does.

It was clear on Wednesday night that both Bernie and Hillary think they can connect best with Latino voters via different approaches. Bernie wants to pitch his plans for economic equality while Hillary wants to focus more directly on immigration narratives. We’ll see which candidate’s approach resonated the best when the Florida results roll in next Tuesday.