The Democratic National Committee's debut political ad of the 2012 campaign season is in Spanish. Democrats released an ad targeting Latinos in swing districts, including Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Denver, on Friday.
The ad is a counter attack to a Spanish commercial released earlier this week in those same markets by Crossroads GPS, a Republican leaning group founded by Karl Rove. The ad, which featured a sleepless mother worried about the nation's growing debt, slammed President Obama's economic policies. The Republican National Committee also released a Spanish language radio ad this week.
The DNC's ad begins with a shot of the Crossroads GPS ad. The narrator says in Spanish: "Behind the ads that pretend to care about our children, are Republicans who would end the Medicare guarantee while protecting tax cuts for the very rich."
On a conference call with reporters, Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said her party wants Hispanic voters to know Obama's record on health care and tax cuts for the middle class.
"This ad buy, and the fact that it is the first one of the campaign season that the DNC is doing, and that it is in Spanish, sends a very strong signal, about just how high a priority the Hispanic community is to this administration, to this president," Wasserman Schultz said.
Latino support is critical to to win the White House in 2012. In 2008, Obama won two thirds of the Hispanic vote.
