Latino voters heard nothing new in last night’s presidential debate

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco (2.5 minute read)

This is the picture everybody will be talking about today. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump side-by-side in the first presidential debate of 2016. Most of the post-debate commentary held to a small set of common observations: that is was a debate unlike any other, bordering on the bizarre in some instances; that the candidates held their base, neither of them gave a reason for partisans to switch sides; and that no one knows for sure what the undecided middle will do. The rest is delving into details that matter more to pundits than to voters watching the debate in their living rooms.

So who won?

That’s the question du jour in these things. Eliminating partisan hacks, surrogates and campaign staffers, Clinton gets the nod from all observers. She was better prepared (meaning she prepared, period), more in control of the issues, and passed the “presidential look” test with high marks. Overall, Trump looked petty and although he started the evening with direction and energy he looked fatigued and rambled through the last half of the debate.

Is this going to make any difference in the race?

I think it might, because the coveted undecided voters in swing states and those who are just now tuning into presidential politics are people who follow their gut – conscientious voters have mostly made up their minds already. Voters affected by the economy, voters interested in international affairs, security, immigration, trustworthiness, racism, terrorism, education, have already decided on their candidate. These debates are about a specific set of voters, gut voters in swing states. And on a gut level, among non-partisans, Trump looked and sounded unstable.

What did last night mean for Latino voters, specifically?

Latinos are on Hillary’s side by a wide and widening margin. That didn’t change last night, especially when Trump doubled-down on his birther record. Latino voters heard a white guy boast that he was the one who forced a sitting president of the United States, who happens to be a man of color, to show him his papers. The rest was noise.

Latinos care about education, it wasn’t mentioned. Latinos care about health, it wasn’t mentioned. Latinos care about Latin American policy, not mentioned. There was no mention of immigration. Latino millennials especially want to hear about college debt and the environment, nada. And when Trump held a strong stance on law and order and stop and frisk, when he claimed that Latinos and Blacks ware “living in hell,” Latinos young and old understood the dog whistle: they’re in the crosshairs.

Look for mid-week polls to show what white college educated men and white moms in swing states thought of the debate, that’s who last night was for.