“Vote for Trump? I can’t”, the Cuban-born Gutierrez says into the camera.
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A Cuban-American Republican who served as former President George W. Bush’s commerce secretary stars in a new political TV ad – for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Hillary Clinton is doubling down on her appeal to Latino voters. Florida and Nevada, where Clinton’s new Spanish-language ads will air, both have large Latino populations, and are both battleground states.
Carlos Gutierrez says he is “an American first” in the Spanish-language spot, which began airing in Florida on Wednesday. I can’t. It’s unsafe, and we can’t go back. He’s a high-profile backer of President Barack Obama’s policy to renew diplomatic ties with the island, a position that has upset many of Gutierrez’s longtime hardline exile friends in Miami. Gutierrez is just the latest of several prominent Republicans nationwide to endorse Clinton, as her campaign sharpens its pitch to GOP-leaning voters unsettled by Trump. Gutierrez initially supported the campaign of former Republican Florida governor Jeb Bush and frequently warned fellow Republicans that Trump’s anti-immigrant message would be detrimental to their party. It features Trump disparaging immigrants in the USA illegally as criminals and rapists.
“Because he shouts insults, Trump thinks he has real strength”, the announcer says, highlighting Trump’s comments about some illegal immigrants “bringing crime” and being “rapists”.
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Clinton leads among Latino voters by a wide margin, but despite running against an opponent who is vehemently anti-immigration (and with a running mate who is respected within the community), she isn’t necessarily doing better than Democratic candidates in the past, and she has lower favorability among Latino voters than the Democratic party overall.
