Sanders' bond with Latinos gets first test of many in Nevada

LAS VEGAS (AP) — When the Bernie Sanders for President campaign set up shop in Las Vegas last July, its first move was to open an office in the city’s east side, the heart of the Latino community. Staffers decorated the stark space with brightly colored paper banners known as “papel picado" and threw an office opening party with a mariachi band and appearance from Sanders himself.

Three times a day canvassers spill out of its doors to walk the streets, knocking on doors, calling out at neighbors in Spanish and talking up Sanders — or as he is known to some Latino supporters, “Tio Bernie.”

A self-declared socialist from Vermont, Sanders is sometimes pigeon-holed as the hero to white college students and lefty boomers. But his campaign believes his outreach to diverse voters, especially Latinos in places like east Las Vegas, will be the secret to his success.

Four years ago, Sanders' failure to muster enough support from minority voters was partly to blame for his losing the Democratic nomination. This time around, he has transformed his outreach to Hispanic voters, hiring high-level Latino advisers, beefing up Spanish-speaking canvassing and digging deep into Latino neighborhoods to find voters open to his populist message.

There are signs that Sanders’ work has begun to pay off. In Iowa, Sanders won two-thirds of the roughly 1,000 votes at caucus locations in majority Latino areas, according to a study by professors at the University of California-Los Angeles. While reliable polling on Latinos is scarce, a Fox News survey of Nevada Democrats in early January found Sanders had stronger support among Latinos than among whites in the state, tying Biden for the lead among the group.

But the first real test of the strategy is Nevada's caucus on Feb. 22, the third contest on the presidential nominating...