Latino voters will be the X factor for Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama in the crucial Texas primary March 4.It will also be an even bigger factor in determining whether he will succeed in his drive to be the first African-American U.S. president.
Los Angeles, Ca, USA, February 19, 2008 — Political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson says the tensions and wariness between many Latinos and African-Americans could hurt Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in the March 4 Texas primary. Latinos make up nearly 30 percent of the vote in the state. Though polls show that Obama has sizeable support from Latinos, the majority still back his opponent Hillary Clinton. In Nevada, Obama got the endorsement of the leaders of the heavily Hispanic Culinary Workers Union. But getting the vote of the rank and file union workers was a far different matter, Hutchinson insists, as the subsequent vote showed. Latino voters, many of them almost certainly members of the culinary union, defied their leaders and helped propel Clinton to victory in the Nevada primary in January.
This was yet another danger sign that the continuing reluctance of manyt Latino voters to back a major black candidate could have a blowback effect on Obama.
The number of Latino voters has steadily grown in the key primary states of New Jersey, New York, Florida and his home state, Illinois. So much so that the black vote, even though he has grabbed a near record share of it, and he has split the white vote, will not insure an Obama victory in Texas and beyond. The Latino vote looms as the X factor for him. Hutchinson says Obama is now the black candidate that faces that challenge and danger.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Decides the Race to the White House (Middle Passage Press, February 2008).
Press release distribution by PressReleasePoint (http://www.pressreleasepoint.com/)
Contact:
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Hutchinson Report
Los Angeles, Ca. USA.
323-296-6331
[email protected]
http://earlofarihutchinson.blogspot.com
