If Hillary Clinton cannot pull off spectacular victories in next Tuesday's Texas and Ohio primaries, then her chance of winning the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency is over. Senator Clinton is looking for support among the large Latino community in the state of Texas, which borders Mexico. Spanish-speaking voters are among her most loyal supporters but over the last few weeks, she has lost many supporters to Barack Obama.
 |
Hillary Clinton |
Her victories were largely due to heavy support from Spanish-speaking voters. More than two thirds of the Latino vote went to Senator Clinton and she is still hoping that the almost 8.5 million Latinos in Texas will give her a spectacular victory and allow her to snatch the nomination from her rival.
But Senator Obama is now focusing intensively on the Latino voters. Opinion polls show that the Obama phenomenon is also beginning to take hold among Spanish-speaking voters. Luis Jimenez is a shock jock. According to him, initially there was a great deal of rivalry between Spanish-speaking and African Americans. It was a case of one minority group feeling threatened by the success of the other.
However, in an interview on CNN, he said that Senator Obama was relatively unknown among Spanish-speaking voters. Over the years Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton had managed to build up a relationship with Latino voters, or at least those Latinos that vote Democrat. Unlike African Americans, Spanish-speaking voters are far less of a homogenous community.
The most recent Gallup poll held in Texas puts Mr Obama neck and neck with Hillary Clinton. A few weeks ago, she enjoyed more than two thirds of the vote. Barack Obama's message of change and renewal and ‘Yes, we can' - Si, se puede in Spanish - is attracting more and more Latinos into his growing coalition.
The success of this Spanish version of an inspirational Obama song on the internet is certainly not good news Hillary.
*RNW translation (jc)
Tags: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Latino, primary, Texas