Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday praised President Barack Obama’s pending immigration plan with warm language: “This is personal to me,” he said.
Personal, and political.
The Nevada Democrat needs to rally Hispanics, who account for 27.5 percent of the state’s population, if he hopes to win a sixth term in 2016. On Nov. 17, he signed a letter urging Obama to act quickly to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. Tomorrow, Reid will be at Obama’s side when the president outlines the plan in Las Vegas. The event follows Obama’s televised address on immigration tonight.
“It kicks off Harry Reid’s 2016 campaign nicely,” Robert Uithoven, a Nevada-based Republican strategist said of the event. “It is one of those key constituencies that Harry Reid would like to get a head start on and this will help him do that.”
People close to Reid say immigration is an issue where the political imperative of rallying Hispanic voters lines up with his feelings.
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