Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign has hired Julie Chávez Rodriguez, the granddaughter of late labor leader César Chávez, as a senior adviser focused on Latino outreach.
Chávez Rodriguez served as a special assistant to former President Obama, managing outreach to Latino and LGBT groups. She most recently served as California state director for Sen. Kamala Harris’s (D-Calif.) presidential campaign.
Chávez Rodriguez will work with Cristóbal Alex, the former president of the Latino Victory Fund who manages Latino voter issues for the Biden campaign.
Some Democrats have been worried about Biden’s softer than expected support among Latinos, who voted heavily in favor of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during the Democratic primary.
A Latino Decisions poll released last month found that 59 percent of registered Latino voters said they would vote for Biden. That’s far more than the 17 percent who said they would vote for President Trump, but is a historically low number for the presumed Democratic presidential nominee.
In addition to Chávez Rodriguez, the Biden campaign has been ramping up other hiring efforts in recent weeks as Democrats have raised concerns that they’ll be outmanned by Trump’s massive campaign.
Over the past week, the Biden campaign has beefed up its digital team and added several senior staff members to work under chief operating officer Manu Varghese. The Biden campaign says it will have 600 staffers on the ground in battleground states by June.