Biden has a real Latino problem

“Biden has had a hard time motivating young voters in general, and Latinos are just younger,” Rocha told me. Among older Hispanic voters, Rocha suggested, Biden faces a different kind of challenge. “With those who are older, who have voted in one or two cycles, there’s still some Obama hangover with immigration policy,” he said. “Deportations are still fresh on many people’s minds.” At first, Biden was reluctant to distance himself from the controversial immigration policy of the first two years of the Obama administration. He finally did so in an interview with Jorge Ramos.

Rocha warned that Biden’s current approach to campaigning from confinement is not reaching the Hispanic electorate. “Biden is having webinars and getting endorsements and he’s doing all the things that the status quo says you are supposed to do, but that’s not how you talk to Latinos,” he explained. “You have to spend money, go have a conversation and tell them why your policies are different from Barack Obama’s.”

Of course, the problem is that Biden can’t really “have a conversation” with anyone in person at the moment, Hispanic or otherwise. The solution, Rocha says, could come from Biden’s long list of Hispanic surrogates.