To the rhythm of salsa and in Spanish: The campaign for the Hispanic vote in Los Angeles has begun

The race for the Hispanic vote for Los Angeles mayor has begun. Two of the main candidates, current mayor Karen Bass and former reality TV star Spencer Pratt, launched parallel campaigns in recent hours to seduce the Hispanic electorate.

The account Latinos For Pratt (@LatinosPorPratt), created over the weekend, published a music video criticizing the mayor to the rhythm of salsa. With a chorus in Spanish (and an all-Spanish version), "Latinos Por Pratt" signs, a Mexican flag and even the candidate dancing salsa, all created with artificial intelligence, the appeal to the Hispanic voter is direct.

The list of reproaches includes everything from the potholes in the streets to the fact that "the World Cup is coming in hot/ And there is no room for anyone else." The criticism to which Pratt devotes the most time is Bass's absence during last year's fires in Altadena and Palisades, which started while the Democrat was on a trip to Ghana:

"Mayor Karen took a trip way off the map while the hills caught fire. She was posting from abroad..."

Fire management is a major banner for Pratt, who announced he would run for office during a protest march called "They Let Us Burn" in Palisades. Pratt's own home was engulfed by flames.

Also last weekend, Bass' team launched the Latinos with Bass coalition. With Democratic officeholders and left-wing activists in attendance, the event emphasized the mandataria's resistance to Trump's immigration policy.

"¡Buenos días, sí se puede!" the mayor greeted in Spanish as she took the stage. "We are entering a period in our history that I would have never imagined, this is the kind of stuff we used to talk about... we worried about fascism, we worried about troops coming on our city streets but we never really imagined that it would happen," she maintained before saying that the priority was accessibility and defining the homelessness problem as "a black-brown issue."

On social media, Bass responded to the music video with an image from the event: she surrounded by participants holding "Latinos with Bass" signs and the text "Latinos Con Bass > A.I. Latinos (in reference to Pratt's video being crafted with artificial intelligence)."

The importance of the Hispanic voter in Los Angeles

Hispanics represent about 48-50% of the city's population. However, historically they have been less than 40% of the effective electorate. At the same time, turnout in mayoral elections is typically low (20%-45%), so successfully mobilizing the Latino vote may be key.

In 2022, Bass won decisive support from the bloc. In the latest polls this year, the mayor is leading the race, although her approval rating is mostly negative. A significant portion of the electorate remains undecided.

According to a recent poll by the Institute of Governmental Studies of Berkeley, Bass concentrates 25% of the voting intention. The same percentage as voters who remain undecided. In second place is the leftist Nithya Raman, with 17%. However, she may lack custom: in her current district, Latinos represent only 19% of the electorate. Pratt has 14% voting intention.

"That she’s having this much trouble against this field, against such a little-known field of opponents, bodes very, very poorly for her," UC Berkeley professor Dan Schnur, in conversation with the LA Times, a co-sponsor of the poll. "The only thing saving her at this point is that the top tier of potential candidates who were considering running against her decided to stay out of this race."

Convincing the Hispanic voter could end up saving her. Not doing so could sink her.