WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton's campaign is pressing issues that it hopes will deepen questions about Donald Trump's character and resonate with Latino voters in the key states of Florida, Nevada and Ohio in new radio ads out Monday morning.
Hoping to make headway with Cuban voters who are less likely to support Democrats, an ad called "Two Trumps" hitting the English and Spanish-language airwaves in Miami, highlights a days old Newsweek report that Trump allegedly violated the Cuban embargo by disguising business trips to the island in hopes of reaping the benefits in Cuba.
While Trump comes to Miami to sip Cuban "cafecito" and talk about human rights abuses of Castro's communist regime, the ad says, "the other Donald thinks he's above the law."
"While our parents and grandparents were fighting the Castro regime both on and off the island, Donald Trump was looking to line his pockets — and even worse, those are the Castro brothers," the narrator with the Cuban accent says.
Clinton last year called for an end to the Cuban embargo.
A Spanish-language ad set to run in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Cleveland, Ohio is titled as a play on "all that glitters is not gold" and features Carmen, a Latina housekeeper at Trump Hotel who says he treats his employees like "second-class" workers.
"Trump has said that wages are too high and the truth is employees like Carmen at Trump Hotel make three dollars less an hour than employees in other hotels in the same city," the narrator says.
The campaign did not divulge the size of the radio ad buys.
Nevada has been closer than many expected with non-college educated whites buoying Trump in the state and recent polls show him establishing a consistent lead in Ohio. The Clinton campaign has an Ohio Latino vote director marshaling a small but important bloc of Hispanics in the true swing state, which the Obama campaign did not have in 2012.
The ads again emphasize Clinton's core critique — that voters should question Trump's character, honesty, and business dealings.
While the campaign has been questioned lately by nervous Democrats anxious to see her press her advantage with Latino voters, Trump will struggle to approach Mitt Romney's poor showing of 27% Hispanic support in 2012, and could slide much further.
After a year of punishing Spanish-language news coverage and harsh rhetoric about Mexicans and other immigrations, Trump inexplicably spent the days after the debate battling former Miss Universe Alicia Machado.
A third Clinton radio ad released Monday may get less attention, but represents the new terrain the campaign believes is available with Latinos.
Cindy Guerra starts off listing her Cuban and conservative bonafides — the daughter of Cuban refugees, she grew up in Florida, volunteered for Ronald Reagan, and served as the chair of the Broward Republican Party — she's one of them.
But this year she can't vote for Trump, she says, because the values her daughters are learning in Catholic school don't match up with Trump making fun of a disabled man or fighting with gold star parents who lost their son in Iraq.
"Who does these things?" she asks. "I can't teach my daughters one thing at home and vote in a contrary way."
