A Latino and Gay Political Strategist Holds All the Cards

Raul Alvillar is an experienced political strategist, after starting as an intern for a local campaign in New Mexico, reaching the White House and working in the Obama campaign. He is now responsible for the Democrats to get the necessary wins to help the future Democratic president.

Raúl Alvillar, director político del Comité Nacional Demócrata.

Raúl Alvillar, director político del Comité Nacional Demócrata. Crédito: Cortesía | La Casa Blanca

Raul Alvillar’s job is to win elections. And in this election cycle, in which there is much at stake, the native of the small town of Belen, New Mexico, has a purpose to fulfill: that the next president -Democrat- has a much more favorable Congress than President Obama had, at least in the last six years.

This is not a small thing that the post as a top political strategist at the National Committee of the Democratic Party, in a key election like this, is in the hands of a Latino and leader of the gay community, who acted as liaison for this current president between that community and the White House.

This is also the fifth presidential election in which he has worked in. Not bad for a man who is just 38 years old.

It is a key position, perhaps one of the most important for the Democrats at this time. To look for votes, Alvillar meets with local leaders, state parties, elected officials, community groups. It is necessary to coordinate voter registration and the campaigns that can become in Democrats, positions that are now held by Republicans.

“My job is to win elections, not only in the most important positions but those below as well,” explains Alvillar, who receives us wearing shirtsleeves in the office of the Democratic Party for the County of Los Angeles on Wilshire Boulevard, in the heart of Koreatown.

Amid a still very intense presidential primary, Democrats, and particularly his political director, must deal with that after this campaign is over, “our supporters go forward identifying themselves as Democrats, not as Hillary or Bernie’ supporters.”

“We need Congress to work with the Democratic president, which we believe will win,” he said.

The two chambers of Congress in Washington are held by a Republican majority, but Alvillar believes it is possible this year to take the Senate from the hands of conservatives and greatly reduce their advantage in the House of Representatives.

“We can make them no longer have a supermajority,” he says.

Winning the presidency is always difficult, but winning multiple campaigns of many candidates in different states, to gain ground in the legislative power, is vastly more complicated.

There has been criticism recently about the way the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s campaign has distributed funds from the “Hillary Victory Fund” that is supposed to benefit not only the national party but state funds. Media analysis pointed out that the vast majority of the money has been allocated to Hillary’s campaign -whom it is not even the nominated yet- general expenses of the national party, and not to the needs of state parties that require these funds to overcome their local candidates.

According to Alvillar, the money will return to the state party for the general election, after the primary in June.

Although this campaign has shown that money and the political establishment influence is not everything-Jeb Bush was the best funded candidate and did not succeed- the 2016 campaign will be, as usual, a breaker of records.

“Campaigning is very expensive,” says Alvillar. “But you have to invest in key states and races”.

There are always complaints that national parties do not invest in the Latino vote, who talk a lot and then they do not do so much.

Alvillar says he does not have an exact figure of what will be the investment, but that the Latino vote will be key, especially in some Congress races, in the California Senate, and in specific states that may swing the election, like Colorado.

Trump is not mentioned, but it is clear that Alvillar considered him a benefit for Democratic campaigns. Any questions about Democrats failures on issues such as immigration, invokes Trump’s statements about immigrants and Republican’s attitudes, who have promised to undo DACA and DAPA (if the Supreme Court approves it).

“Call Mexicans rapists and build a wall, focusing on Mexicans and Muslims, is not a way to attract the vote of various groups of the society,” said the strategist, referring to Trump without naming him.

He adds that the Democratic administration of a new president “will have no choice but to take the immigration issue seriously. This is a topic that many people care.”

For him, there is only one way to give more power to the Latino community in the politics of this country: ensuring that Latinos help Democrats win the elections.

“If we can mobilize our people and say, we won this election thanks to this segment of voters, this will give us real power, and we can also really choose people who represent our needs,” he says. “There is no other way to do it.”

Who is Raul Alvillar?

Third generation of immigrants, his father descends from Andalusians, Spain; grandmother on his maternal side is from Chihuahua, Mexico; grandparent born in New Mexico, when the state was still part of Mexico -before 1912.

His first presidential campaign was the Gore-Liberman in 2000, as a volunteer, and since then he has worked in all Democratic campaigns, until becoming western regional director for Barack Obama.

He went on to the White House, where he worked for Vice President Biden and as a liaison to the gay, lesbian and transgender community. He is openly gay and says this has benefited him to gain the trust of the Democratic Party in its ability to bind to that community.

In 2014 he was appointed first Latino political director for the Democratic Party.

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