Primary Season Is Here And 'Hispandering' Is Back
It's happening ... again. We have a presidential primary field full of candidates who (with one exception) aren't Latinx, trying to demonstrate how down they are with Hispanic and Latinx voters. Sure, politicians have to reach out to voters from across the cultural and racial spectrum — it's part of the job. But if that outreach is all style and little substance, it can come across as what some people call "Hispandering."
Wednesday night, in a debate full of attempted (and sometimes failed) power moves by Democratic presidential hopefuls, Spanish-speaking households heard their language spoken by someone other than a network interpreter. It all started when the debate turned to marginal tax rates: Beto O'Rourke tried his best to code switch, delivering his answer in Spanish.
It didn't stop there. When Sen. Cory Booker was asked about the current state of the immigration crisis on the southern border, he voiced, too. Thursday night's debate is likely to bring up even more of these moments (cue ).
