Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton‘s campaign is going full steam ahead for a big win in Arizona.
Not content with a newly announced $2 million ad and direct mail blast, Hillary has called on super heavyweight supporters Chelsea Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders and the jewel in the crown, first lady Michelle Obama, to go there and meet the people.
Yet all the polls show Clinton to be already well ahead in the Grand Canyon State. Why is she focusing so much on Arizona instead of other swing states, where the margins are much tighter?
First and foremost, there’s a point of general strategy: the bigger the win, the more chance of securing a mandate in office.
Over and above that the answer has to be: it’s all about immigration. Consider these facts:
- At 31 percent of its population, Arizona has a large Latino community, and it’s becoming ever more politicized. According to local campaigners Mi Familia Vota, the number of Latinos registered to vote by mail leapt from 50,000 to 350,000 since 2010. Needless to say, immigration is a major election issue for them. The director of Mi Familia Vota was quoted as saying:
“I hope that Hillary Clinton and her campaign see this as an opportunity to send a clear message to Republicans that enough is enough to be playing around with the issue of immigration.”
- Political researchers Latino Decisions believe this star turnout of surrogates will excite the Latino voters and give the Democrats an excellent chance of winning the state. A spokesman commented:
“Sending Michelle Obama sends a signal that a lot of it will hinge on turnout, and in that state particularly Latino turnout.”
- Winning in a traditionally red state like Arizona will be a major weapon in forcing the Republicans to talk sensibly on immigration reform in future. More than that, it will show that the Republican nominee Donald Trump‘s hostile stance on the issue really doesn’t work.
Of course, when Michelle Obama went down and did her thing in Phoenix this week, it was a stunning success. Here’s the highlight of her amazing speech, which went truly global.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MblD4mnbP8
Featured image: Screenshot from YouTube video
