Joe Biden Should Hear 'Alarms' Over Hispanic Vote
Univision's shifting policy regarding Donald Trump should be "setting off alarms" for Joe Biden, a Hispanic business leader has said.
Speaking to Newsweek President and CEO of the United States Hispanic Business Council Javier Palomarez reacted to news that the former president and frontrunner in the Republican primaries hosted executives from the nation's most influential Spanish-language network at Mar-a-Lago last week while the network interviewed him, per The Washington Post.
The publication reported that the company cancelled ads by the Biden campaign that had been scheduled to air during an interview with Trump. As per a new Univision policy, opposition ads are no longer allowed during single-candidate interviews, meaning that Trump ads would similarly not be allowed to run during a Biden interview.
Univision also cancelled a booking with Biden's Hispanic Media Director Maca Casado in response to the Trump interview after it aired on the network's late news broadcast, according to anonymous sources cited by the newspaper.
Palomarez and accused Biden of being "tone deaf" to the needs of the Hispanic community.
He said: "For the Democratic Party, which has proudly touted its stronghold among minority voters, Univision's shift toward Trump should be setting off alarms."
"It's evident that Hispanic voters are in search of a political home, and painfully clear that they feel they have none," he added, and said Biden is losing support from younger voters in swing states over concerns about topics like inflation, interest rates and the cost of living.
The ethnic group that was least supportive of Biden's run in the 2020 presidential race was Latinos, with only 59 percent of Hispanics backing him over Trump, according to Pew Research Center data. In comparison, 90 percent of Black voters and 64 percent of Asian American voters cast their ballots for Biden.
"As a large and growing community that shows a willingness to vote based on beliefs rather than party lines, Hispanics will play a crucial role in deciding the next president," Palomarez said. "Hispanics worry about all the same issues and challenges that all Americans are worried about. In that regard, we are no different.
"The Biden administration is tone deaf to the issues Hispanics care most about. Losing the focused support from Univision sets the tone of the most crucial race Biden faces—the race to deeply connect with Hispanic households and demonstrate a belief that Hispanics are indeed the electoral force of the future."
A spokesperson from Univision told Newsweek: "Univision News had been pursuing an interview with Donald Trump since 2015, about eight years ago. This interview held significant importance for our audience, and we are delighted that Enrique Acevedo, one of our company's most prominent award-winning journalists, with experience in both the U.S. and Mexico, had the opportunity to sit down one-on-one with Trump.
They added: "Univision remains committed to its longstanding mission of providing the Hispanic community the information it needs to make informed decisions. We understand the importance of the Hispanic community as the decisive electorate in the upcoming presidential election, and we know Univision is the number one platform to reach them. We pride ourselves on being a neutral platform that encourages broad and open debate."
Newsweek contacted representatives for Biden via email to comment on this story.