Hillary Clinton’s Nevada outreach strategy starts with women

Hillary Clinton meets with young immigrants, or so-called Dreamers, and their families Sunday at a campaign office in Las Vegas. (Photo: John Locher/AP)

LAS VEGAS — To some of her supporters in Sin City, Hillary Clinton is “La Hillary.”

The wall of her presidential campaign headquarters in the heart of the Latino community in East Las Vegas is decorated with a bright mural featuring a dramatic profile of Clinton’s face over the slogan “La Hillary ¡Estoy Contigo!” — Spanish for “I’m with you.” According to organizers there, the mural was painted by a supporter affiliated with a local painter’s union and displays a name for Clinton commonly used by people in the community.

A nickname isn’t the only thing Clinton has gotten from this campaign office in a low-slung strip mall. The outpost about 9 miles from the Vegas Strip has served as the laboratory for a female-focused Latino outreach program that the Clinton campaign has taken national.

There were already indications the Latino vote could prove decisive heading into the Democratic primary. However, the bloc became even more crucial for Clinton after her rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., came from behind to nearly tie her in Iowa on Feb. 1. Sanders also defeated Clinton by a large margin in New Hampshire on Feb. 9.

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Those first two states have overwhelmingly white populations, and the conventional wisdom has long been that Clinton could stop any Sanders surge thanks to her advantage with minorities in the next places to vote, Nevada, where Democrats caucus on Feb. 20, and South Carolina, which has a Democratic primary on Feb. 27.

But there are some indications that Clinton’s minority firewall seems to be eroding. In a conversation on the evening of Sanders’ New Hampshire victory, his senior adviser Tad Devine told Yahoo their internal polls showed signs the race was tightening “substantially.” Devine attributed Sanders’ gains in Nevada to “movement with Latino voters,” who make up about 17 percent of the electorate in the state’s Democratic caucus.

Nevada’s newfound status as a primary battleground means Clinton’s female-focused Latino outreach efforts will be extremely important.

In an interview with Yahoo last month, Lorella Praeli, the campaign’s Latino outreach director, explained the role her team expects women to play as Clinton attempts to win the Latino vote.

Lorella Praeli, policy director of immigrant youth organization United We Dream, speaks to the media after meeting with Domestic Policy Director Cecilia Muñoz at the White House in December 2014. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

“We feel that Latinas are the CEOs of the household and also in the community and they are faithful and, you know, you have to speak about their issues and you have to work with them, but once they’re there, they are your mobilizers and your multipliers,” Praeli said. “When they’re so excited, they’re going to talk to their comadres … and they’re going to bring to the fold … their kids and one or two friends. And so that’s why we’re so focused on making sure that we reach them.”

Praeli, 27, joined the Clinton campaign in June. Previously the policy director at the immigrant youth organization United We Dream, she came to the United States from Peru when she was 10 and only received her green card in 2012. Some members of her family remain undocumented. Praeli told Yahoo the Clinton campaign is running a number of different Latino outreach programs, but it is employing the female-focused approach “across the board” in those efforts.

“When we look at our national strategy and then our state strategy, I almost always start with women,” Praeli said. “Like the first few meetings that I did were with women, with Latinas.”

One initiative that’s set to expand around the country after starting in Vegas is Mujeres in Politics, or “Women in Politics.” By hosting regular meetings of small groups of Latinas to discuss politics and share concerns, the campaign hopes to build a community of women who will stick around to get on the phone and call other Spanish-speaking women in key states that have been identified by the campaign. Women who participate in these meetings at campaign offices are also being encouraged to host similar gatherings in their own homes.

Mujeres in Politics was the brainchild of two field organizers, Natalie Montelongo and Vanessa Valdivia, working for the campaign in Las Vegas. They hosted the first meeting in August. According to Montelongo, the program was an instant success.

“Conducting outreach to the Latino network is very difficult. It’s very difficult to engage them, it’s very difficult to get them to do something that they’re not used to or is not in their community already,” Montelongo told Yahoo in an interview last month. “So, the light bulb for me was how much this really resonated to women, because … our first kickoff Mujeres in Politics gathered about 30 women, and that is a huge turnout.”

Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign rally at Bonanza High School in Las Vegas on Sunday. (Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Montelongo, 29, is from Texas and has been working for the Clinton campaign in Nevada since July. Her parents, Mexican immigrants who became U.S. citizens, helped inspire the Mujeres in Politics program.

“I am the first American in the family. … That’s why this work for me is so important, because it’s something very personal,” Montelongo explained. “Whenever I build programs or I think of outreach I always think of what would resonate with my parents, you know, as people who are not very civically engaged and now finally are because of me. I try to think of ways or things that would interest them, and that’s how we’ve thought about doing outreach to our community here.”

Praeli saw the program during a visit to Nevada this summer and she decided to spread the initiative beyond Las Vegas. According to Praeli, in addition to Nevada, the Clinton campaign is currently holding Mujeres in Politics meetings in Texas, Florida, Colorado, and New York. It has also created similar programs led by Latinas in other states tailored to the needs of local communities.

“There are different things that work in different states, and so this is something that Nevada is really going after. … Colorado might be a little different, and so there’s a phone bank aspect, … but it’s, you know, a Latina voting circle, which is a little different,” Praeli said. “Each state is true to sort of their own identity, and culture, and practices. So these things might vary. So it could work with Puerto Ricans in Florida, but maybe Cubans in Florida want something else. … We work very closely with the leaders on the ground to do that.”

Nevertheless, Praeli said the campaign plans to bring Mujeres in Politics to several new areas, including Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and crucial swing states. She outlined how the program is designed to grow exponentially.

“We’re planning a national llamadaton, which is our national Mujeres for Hillary phone bank challenge where there are women in each — in sort of our key battleground states signing up to co-lead this effort,” Praeli said of a planned campaign call-a-thon. “They’re all responsible for having 10 people each, and those people will recruit 10 people, and they’re going to get their login, and they’re going to begin to have phone banks, and they’re going to be calling other Latinas throughout the country to make sure that we commit to caucus for Hillary and we commit to turn out for Hillary.”

Clinton has faced questions about her positions on immigration, and the campaign has stumbled in some of its social media outreach to Latinos. Still, she maintains a wide advantage with minority voters that is a key asset as she seeks to fend off the primary challenge from Sanders. Clinton’s team clearly believes that female supporters can be its best ambassadors as it seeks to preserve that edge.

“We’ve always known from the beginning of the campaign that when Latinas talk to other Latinas, there is a camaradería, a camaraderie. … We trust each other and we’re always communicating, and that happens at the very local level,” Praeli said. “The best validators for Clinton and the best people who can talk about her policies and the impact that her policies will have and why she’s the best candidate for Latinos are Latinos themselves.”

Valdivia, one of the organizers who planned the first Mujeres in Politics meeting, also pointed out how important it is for the campaign to cultivate Spanish speakers for these outreach efforts.

“It does make a huge difference to have another woman reaching out to you in your language to say, ‘We need you to come out and vote, we need your support, and this is how important it is,’” Valdivia explained.

According to the campaign, there are now about 20 women participating in biweekly Mujeres in Politics meetings at the East Las Vegas office. Yahoo visited a meeting one afternoon in December. Over 10 women participated and two brought their husbands along.

Amalia Renteria, who said she works as a manager at Burger King, had her young daughter with her. Renteria said it was her third time at the Clinton campaign office that week.

Signs in Spanish that read, “I’m with you,” hang on a wall behind Clinton as she speaks at an event with young immigrants and their families in Las Vegas on Sunday. (Photo: John Locher/AP)

“She’s a female fighter and she is the most supportive to the Latino community,” Renteria, who spoke in Spanish, said of Clinton.

Montelongo, the Clinton campaign field organizer, said she encourages supporters to bring children and let them play at the office.

“A lot of women thought that they were held back because they have children,” said Montelongo. “I always tell them, ‘Bring your kids, bring your kids.’ It doesn’t matter. We have plenty of space here for them to run around and not a lot for them to break.”

Montelongo also said many participants regularly come to meetings on their lunch breaks. Pati Castro, a hair salon owner, told Yahoo she was volunteering for two hours between appointments.

And some of the participants in East Las Vegas are spreading the word beyond the Clinton campaign office. Along with making calls, Castro said she tells the women who come to her salon about the “importance of us supporting Hillary Clinton.”

“It’s important that we as women empower ourselves, that we develop ourselves,” Castro explained in Spanish. “A woman can work, can run the family, can have a profession, and we can do big things.”

Maria Gray, a retired grandmother who brought her husband, Steve, to the meeting, told Yahoo she regularly hosts Mujeres in Politics gatherings in her home.

“I have like 11 women that are making calls for Hillary in my house,” Gray said in Spanish. “It’s like another campaign office in my house now.”