NPR takes a look, in the process staking out my old neighborhood:
Latinos now make up about 10 percent of Raleigh’s population. In the city’s Brentwood neighborhood, many shop at Hispanic grocery stores like International Foods. Many are immigrants from Mexico and Central America — former migrant or seasonal workers who brought their families here and settled down.
There are also a lot of Puerto Ricans — people like Angel Delgado.
“I’m going to vote,” Delgado said. “I’m voting for Obama. He’s the only one that been doing something for, you know, people … that need help, you know what I’m saying? Republicans, they ain’t going to do nothing for anybody. I know that.”
Note that Romney is running Spanish-language ads featuring his son Craig, who is fluent in the language, while the “Obama campaign isn’t running Spanish-language ads on broadcast TV in Raleigh — instead counting on its ground game to get out the Hispanic vote.”
But not all Latinos feel that way:
Arlene Nugent, a Latina formerly in the military, says she was drawn to Romney out of concern about the growing U.S. debt. She does phone banking with the campaign and talks to friends and relatives. She’s concerned though that many Latinos she encounters already seem wedded to the Democratic Party.
“I do believe that some people are in their political party either by family, history, family tradition, racial pride and because of that, they just vote by habit as opposed to being informed,” Nugent said.
Note that Romney is running Spanish-language ads featuring his son Craig, who is fluent in the language, while the “Obama campaign isn’t running Spanish-language ads on broadcast TV in Raleigh — instead counting on its ground game to get out the Hispanic vote.”
