The campaigns just hyper-focused on whites in Iowa & African-Americans and it placed less value on Latino outreach."
WASHINGTON D.C. (Texas Insider Report) Vanessa Crdenas departure is the latest in a string of troubles for Democrat presidential candidate Joe Bidens campaign and it has party officials concerned further about the partys following by Latino leaders and Hispanic groups. She resigned last week and has since changed her Twitter bio to say she was formerly with @joebiden."
Crdenas (at right) the Biden campaigns senior-most Latina staffer who was also in charge of African-American and womens groups outrach had been serving as National Coalitions Director since the campaign launched on April 25th.
And at least two of Crdenas friends say she was frustrated over her lack of input and with the presidential candidates immigration rhetoric.
Two of Crdenas friends familiar with her thinking recently told POLITICO she felt the campaign wasnt heeding her advice as she tried to reach out to Latino groups on immigration issues which have had longstanding concerns with Bidens rhetoric and his record from his time with the Obama Administration.
The campaign is just hyper-focused on whites in Iowa and African-Americans and it placed less value on Latino outreach" an immigration activist and friend who spoke with her told POLITICO.
Vanessa kept banging her head against the wall trying to get them to take the community more seriously" the friend who wasnt authorized to speak on her behalf said.
And Biden just really wont change when it comes to the way he talks about immigration.
It became too much."
The resignation of Crdenas leaves Cristbal Alex former president of the Latino Victory Fund as Bidens senior-most adviser for issues involving Hispanic voters.
Crdenas departure is the latest in a string of troubles the Biden campaign has had with Latinos and Hispanics partly rooted in the fact that the candidate has so-far held to formerly centrist Democratic party positions on immigration as activists have grown more vocal and progressive.
But for all the criticism Biden continues to lead among Latino voters in many national polls and surveys of states with heavy Hispanic populations.
In other polls of Latinos Biden is essentially tied with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Biden was criticized for skipping a Latino elected officials forum in June. And in August his campaign went into damage control after immigration activists grew upset over how Biden spoke about the issue at a debate. He also avoided a California Democratic event where he was aware the immigration issue could haunt him.
On Thursday Biden ended up in a widely publicized clash at a South Carolina event with Carlos Rojas an immigration activist with the group Movimiento Cosecha who wanted the candidate to pledge to halt deportations.
Rojas told Biden he had volunteered for the Obama-Biden campaign in 2008 but became disenchanted with the Obama Administration because over those 8 years there were 3 million people that were deported and separated from their families."
You should vote for Trump" Biden cut in.
What happened last week was a perfect example of what Vanessa was dealing with" one of the friends told POLITICO.
Biden just refuses to talk about the issue in a compassionate way."
