Reflections on a rally: Clinton backers discuss E.L.A. Cinco de Mayo event

by Marcy Rothenberg

First posted to Let's Talk Nation on May 8, 2016

While the lion’s share of people attending Hillary Clinton’s Cinco de Mayo rally at East Los Angeles College on May 5 were Hispanic, the rally did much more than bolster Clinton’s support among Hispanics ahead of California’s June 7 primary. It also illustrated the depth of her support among multiple target demographics, reported several campaign volunteers.

“Being in East L.A., this rally clearly was targeting Latino voters,” remarked Melanie Paulsen, 46, an intellectual property attorney from Valencia, Calif. “It was good to see their issues addressed. But it was a really diverse crowd – it looked like America. With all the talk of Millennials for Bernie, there were plenty of young people there for Hillary, a lot of LGBT activists, union people, a lot of us women, and a lot of feminist men…it was the exact opposite of what you’d expect at a Trump rally.”

The enthusiasm level, reported a second volunteer, a 34-year-old restaurant manager from Canoga Park, Calif., who asked not to be identified, was palpable. “Everyone inside was happy, ecstatic to be there. There’s more excitement in L.A. for Hillary than anyone wants to give her credit for.”

That volunteer seized the opportunity to dialogue with supporters of Bernie Sanders who had come to protest. “My message is one of common ground – that we have a lot more in common than we disagree on. I shared my view that Clinton is for all Americans, not just progressives and Democrats, and that she can reach across party lines and advocate for anyone – it’s what she does best, and what the President should do.”

“If Hillary is our nominee,” the volunteer said, “we want the Bernie people on our side. I hope I kept their minds open.”

Volunteers even found the opportunity to dialogue with Republicans. One, a young Hispanic ELAC student, told Paulsen he comes from a GOP family and was there to earn the extra credit offered by one of his professors. “So I told him I’d grown up in the Central Valley, where everyone registers Republican when you reach 18, but when I went away to college and law school and started learning more, I realized my values were more in line with the Democrats.”

He laughed, Paulsen recalled, and replied that “the one person with a degree in my family is a Democrat!”

“I think he’ll be more open to considering Hillary because we talked,” Paulsen said.

Donald Trump’s comments about “the women’s card” also continued to resonate at the event, a week after he uttered them. “Hillary had a lot to say about the women’s card,” Calabasas, Calif., volunteer Tina Goldberg, 68, remarked, “which I liked, because I think she’ll do all she can to see women’s rights upheld so we’re not treated like second class citizens.”

Trump driving Hispanic voter registration

Clinton’s remarks focused heavily on issues of interest to California Hispanics – a strategic choice, with voter registration among Hispanics in the first quarter of 2016 doubling that of the same quarter in 2012, and with Hispanics already trending Clinton’s way in state primaries across the nation.

Experts like Maria Teresa Kumar, CEO of Voto Latino and an MSNBC contributor, point to Donald Trump’s 79% negative rating among Hispanics in the U.S. as a likely driver of the spike in Democratic voter registration in California. “He has to do more than taco bowls,” Kumar remarked about his chances with Latino voters in a May 6 MSNBC newscast.

After talking with Hispanic moms attending the rally with their children, Paulsen observed that a possible Trump presidency is clearly on their minds. “They’re worried about their livelihoods, they’re worried about their safety in the U.S., they’re worried about getting an education for their kids – and it’s because of the hateful things Trump has said.”

That concern became real when the crowd of 2,000 left the gym and found themselves confronted by a gauntlet of about 200 protesters standing on a wall above the exit walkway, waving anti-Clinton signs and shouting at them.

As Goldberg described it, “It was a rowdy, nasty crowd, yelling nasty things. I’ve never experienced something like that first-hand before. There were Bernie people yelling at us…how can you say you’re for peace and what he stands for and shout these nasty things at us? Maybe it’s my age…but in the ‘60s, I went to peace rallies – we didn’t do that. We wore flowers,” she laughed.

Paulsen and her husband, Robert, who had brought their younger daughter Ava, found themselves coaching the 11-year-old. “Robert held her hand and told her to hold her head up high and smile. As we neared the end of the walkway, I smiled and shouted ‘deal me in!’ We just didn’t engage with them.”

But, added Paulsen, “I talked afterward with several Hispanic moms, with their kids, who were shaking in anger because the protesters had screamed at their children.”

“It led to a good conversation with Ava,” she added, “who’s been studying about Martin Luther King and Ruby Bridges and the suffragettes. It gave her a way to understand what they experienced…and relate viscerally to people who have had to fight for their rights.”

“If anything,” Paulsen concluded, “the experience just strengthened our resolve to elect Hillary.”