Romney and Obama Fight for Hispanic Vote
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William Thomas Cain/Bill Pugliano/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are battling for the Hispanic vote and taking that fight to the airwaves. A few hours after the Romney campaign released a new Spanish language ad, the pro-Obama super PAC, Priorities USA, partnered with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and have released three new ads Wednesday, a total of nine so far.
This is all on the same day a new Quinnipiac University poll found the president leading Romney among Hispanic voters, 59 percent to 30 percent.
The three pro-Obama ads will start running on Thursday in Colorado, Nevada and Florida, and all begin with Romney’s own words. In the one set to run in Colorado, Romney’s famous, “I’m not concerned about the very poor” line starts the ad and then goes to different Hispanic voters talking to the camera.
“He’s a person without feelings who doesn’t care about people whether they be Hispanic, Latino, white, who are below him,” one older man says in Spanish to the camera.
The Florida ad, which like the Colorado ad hits Romney on the issue of Medicare, features a graphic that reads in Spanish, “Romney supports a plan that will essentially end Medicare.” The ad begins with an edited snippet of Romney saying, “I’m going to cut programs.”
Another voter says to the camera: “He has said nothing that may help our homes, the economy, our health.”
The third commercial, which will run in Nevada, focuses on the home foreclosure problem that has ravaged that state. It starts with Romney saying, “Don’t try and stop the foreclosure process, let it run its course and hit the bottom.”
“Mitt Romney hasn’t lost his house and he can’t understand the problems facing people here in the United States,” a female voter says before this harsh critique: “He hasn’t shown that he respects the Latino community.” To be fair, President Obama hasn’t lost a house, either, though he’s fighting desperately to keep one — the White House.
Priorities USA and the SEIU have pledged to spent $4 million dollars over the course of the election in their Spanish language ad campaign.
Wednesday, the Romney campaign also launched a Spanish language ad featuring Romney’s youngest son, Craig.
The ad introduces his father with Craig inviting the viewer “to get to know him” and “listen to his ideas.”
“He is a man of great convictions,” Craig Romney says in Spanish. “He’s been married for over 40 years to my mom. Together they have five sons and 18 grandchildren. He loves our country greatly. What he has achieved has been through hard work — and it is with that same dedication that he will fight to get our country on the right track and create jobs.”
The ad also promotes the campaign’s new Spanish language site aimed at Hispanic voters: JuntosConRomney.com, which means United for Romney.
Craig often appears with his father at events targeted to Latino voters, mostly in Florida, including addressing the Hispanic Leadership Network in Miami in January. He is fluent in the language thanks to a Mormon mission to Chile when he was younger.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio