Voter drive by Latino food truck owners struggles on final day to register

Ernesto Saavedra, owner of the Latin Fusion Grill taco truck, said he “worked really hard” to open his business, and was offended by remarks Latinos for Trump founder Marco Gutierrez made last month defending Donald Trump’s immigration position.

Saavedra, a Hillary Clinton supporter, was involved Tuesday — Nevada’s voter registration deadline — in an effort organized by the Latino Victory Fund and other groups, to register Democratic voters by giving away free tacos and other dishes at several locations around the Las Vegas Valley.

“We thought, what better way to bring this together, than to have taco trucks and organizers together throughout the city registering folks to vote,” said Pili Tobar, communications director for the Latino Victory Fund. Last month, Gutierrez warned that without tighter immigration policies from Trump, “you’re going to have taco trucks on every corner.”

Tuesday’s planned voter registration drive, however, struggled to get off the ground. Tobar said approximately 20 food trucks were expected to fan out across the valley.

But only six trucks gathered in the parking lot of a grocery store on East Bonanza Road, and from there, they left to go to other parts of the city. It was unclear how many voters were registered.

One truck traveled to the College of Southern Nevada, but a security guard said it was not allowed to serve food on campus. NextGen Climate Nevada representatives were there, but instead of registering voters, they asked people to pledge to vote for climate-friendly candidates. Diana Rauda, a fellow with NextGen Climate Nevada, said she received about 25 pledges.

Contact Natalie Bruzda at nbruzda@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3897. Follow @NatalieBruzda on Twitter.