LOS ANGELES: Bernie Sanders' image gazes out from a corner storefront in Boyle Heights, a Hispanic enclave known for its plump burritos and a plaza where mariachis strum guitars. 

It's here that his campaign is going house to house to cut into Hillary Clinton's advantage with Latino voters. 

The oversized painting of the silver-haired Sanders was created by local artists. 

Perched in a front window, it's a centerpiece in an art gallery-turned-unofficial campaign office, where owner Mercedes Hart displays an array of T-shirts, lapel buttons even pink underwear bearing the Vermont senator's name.

Out front, Sanders campaign workers have set up a table to register voters and organize volunteers, who will go out to knock on doors and stuff mailboxes with campaign literature. 

"I don't ever feel like I believe politicians, but I believe him," says Hart, 35, who lived for years in Mexico. Like many Sanders' devotees, she is a first-time voter, taken up by his concern for workaday Americans in an economy divided by haves and have-nots. 

Visitors to her gallery are greeted by a sign above the door featuring a clenched fist and the slogan "Viva Bernie." It's just one snapshot of the tough Democratic presidential campaign playing out in the nation's largest state before the June 7 primary, even as Clinton appears to have a near-lock on the nomination. 

By some estimates, Hispanics could make up as many as 2 in 10 voters in California. The contest comes on the same day as those in New Jersey and several other states, in what amounts to the finale of the 2016 primary season. 

A come-from-behind win for Sanders in California a Clinton stronghold and home to 1 in 8 people in the U.S. would end the former first lady's campaign with a thud, allowing Sanders to refresh his argument that he's the party's best chance to defeat Republican Donald Trump in November. 

It would still, though, almost certainly leave him short of the delegates needed to catch up to her. The New Jersey results alone may put her over the top June 7. 

The California contest has taken on new urgency after Clinton's shaky performance this month. Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs contends that "millions of Americans have growing doubts about the Clinton campaign," citing Sanders' recent victories in Indiana, West Virginia and Oregon.

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