Obama, Republicans ramp up Hispanic outreach

by Josh Lederman - 05/08/12 5:28 PM ET

{mosads}The Obama campaign’s ads appeal to Hispanic support for the healthcare reform law the president championed, and will air in Colorado, Florida and Nevada. Those three states were among nine included in a $25 million ad buy for May announced Monday by Obama’s campaign.

The ads feature Obama activists speaking in Spanish about the benefits of healthcare reform and their work to support the president. At the end of each ad, Obama says in Spanish that he approves the ad.

His campaign said that under the Affordable Care Act, up to 9 million previously uninsured Hispanics will have access to healthcare by 2014.

Obama’s campaign released the ads just as the RNC was introducing recently hired state directors for Hispanic outreach who will work in New Mexico, North Carolina, Nevada, Florida, Colorado and Nevada. The team’s background includes a staffer for former Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and a regional field director who worked for presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney in Florida during the primary.

“We really think Hispanics need to be involved in the party at every level,” said Bettina Inclan, the RNC’s director of Hispanic outreach. “We’re not only including them in what we’re doing, but we’re electing them to high positions.”

Absent from the list of states where the RNC is focusing Hispanic outreach efforts is Arizona, a state Democrats believe they can put in play thanks to a rapidly growing Hispanic population that tends to vote Democratic.

But Inclan said the RNC’s data suggest Arizona is certain to go Republican, and the party isn’t considering it a battleground state.

Inclan said the RNC would be engaging with grassroots Hispanic groups, registering new voters and interacting through social media outlets including Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook.

“Certain polls show that some Hispanics feel the Republican Party isn’t doing enough to reach out to them,” said Inclan. “So what we’re trying to do is rebuild that relationship.”

She said jobs and the economy are the overriding issue for Hispanics, as they are for all Americans, pointing to high unemployment and poverty rates among Hispanic populations in the United States.

But on immigration — another issue of importance to Hispanic voters — officials were reluctant to address how they would square their outreach efforts with the positions of Romney.

Inclan caused a stir by saying that she couldn’t speak to Romney’s position on immigration reform because he hadn’t decided what his position is, prompting immediate clarification from an RNC spokeswoman.

She said Hispanics were disappointed with Obama’s failure to make good on his promise to enact immigration reform, calling it another example of a president who couldn’t lead.

“The reality is this president has deported more Hispanics than any president in American history,” she said.

Republicans have spoken openly about the need to do more to appeal to the fastest-growing voter bloc in the nation. A Fox News poll released in March showed that Hispanic voters overwhelmingly prefer Obama over Republican candidates. Three in four also said they approved of the job Obama is doing, far surpassing his approval rating among the general population.

Watch the Obama ads: