The Martin O’Malley campaign announced yesterday that it has hired Jose Aristimuño, a Spanish-language commentator, political strategist and former associate at the Dewey Square Group’s Latinovations, as its director for Hispanic media. Aristimuño got his start in the O’Malley campaign as a volunteer, but his work-ethic, grit, and obvious talent caught the eye of staff who thought him ideal to lead the campaign’s Latino outreach and engagement efforts regionally and nationally. Despite O’Malley’s early, proven commitment to engaging the Latino constituency, he is still finding it difficult to make positive inroads with the community.
“There’s no question that the governor is not as known among the other candidates in the race,” Aristimuño said in an interview with Buzzfeed. “But when they get to know him and understand his record and what he stands for, people start reevaluating who they want to vote for.”
But Aristimuño, who also founded the Hispanic issues site Latino Giant, is confident he may be able to turn around O’Malley’s fortune with the Latino community so far, where a recent Univision poll found that 74% of potential Hispanic voters did not know O’Malley, and but 1% reported they would vote for him. Still, O’Malley has received positive support from Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, who lauded the former Maryland Governor’s recent immigration policy paper as progressive and inclusive.
While Aristimuño praised O’Malley for taking a stand “against those wanting to deport unaccompanied children at the border,” his campaign is still trying to ramp up support within the Latino community, reasoning that once voters get to know him, they’ll like him.
Indeed, that just may be the reason his campaign hired Aristimuño in the first place.
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