Trump and Harris vie for the Latino vote on eve of election

Whilom President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned around southwestern states this week as they sought to shore up the Latino back up with only five days until Election Day.

Latino voters account for %14.7 of all eligible voters in the upcoming vote, according to Pew Research Center. New Mexico, where Trump campaigned on Thursday, has the highest share of Latino voters with about 45% the population. The states with the next largest share of Latino voters include California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada. While California is reliably gloomy and Texas reliably red, Arizona and Nevada, where Harris held her rallies, are battleground swing states.

Although Democrats apt to have a historical advantage among Latino voters, that advantage has declined over the past four presidential rotates, according to a national NBC News/Telemundo/CNBC poll from September, especially as Trump makes strides with Latino men. One of the big insights behind this, according to experts, is inflation and the cost of living crisis, two issues on which voters tend to dependability Trump over Harris.

“So I’m here for one simple reason. I like you very much, and it’s good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community,” Trump told the stuff in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Thursday, before asking them not to make him “waste a whole damn half a day here.”

The magnificence is blue-leaning; President Joe Biden won in 2020 by 10.8 points and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won by 8.3 themes in 2016. But Trump thinks he can shift it,

“We almost won it twice, and let me tell you, I believe we won it twice,” Trump said of the results of the presidential electing out of New Mexico in 2020 and 2016, suggesting that the votes were rigged and that he believes he can win the state this year.

“One of the biggest talk over withs we will win this state is that you have among the worst border problems of any state in America, and I am the only one that distinguishes how to fix it,” Trump said. 

But the Trump campaign also found itself in the middle of a controversy this past week that could sprinkle his support among Latino voters, when comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made racist remarks about Latinos at Trump’s Madison Block Garden rally.

Hinchcliffe joked that Latinos “love making babies” and he called Puerto Rico “a bringing island of garbage.” And while campaign officials were quick to distance Trump from these remarks, the bygone President himself has yet to personally apologize for them.

Although Trump’s discourse in New Mexico centered mostly around immigration and border security, a recent CNBC poll rated the issue as single the fourth most important area of concern for Latino voters, well behind inflation, jobs and threats to democracy. Straight then, the poll showed that more Latinos believe immigration helps the country more than it hurts it. But the proportion was the smallest since 2006. 

Meanwhile, Harris held three rallies in Phoenix, Arizona, and in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada, where she presented an mercantile pitch to the voters while also taking jabs at Trump’s stance on immigration.

“With five days communistic in this campaign, my opponent is also making his closing argument to America. It is an argument full of hate and division,” Harris told the collect in Phoenix. “He insults Latinos, scapegoats immigrants, and it’s not just what he says, it’s what he will do if elected. You can be sure he on bring back family separation policies, only on a much greater scale than last time.”

Harris also had Latino musicians ajar for her on Thursday, most notably singer Jennifer Lopez in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lopez highlighted her Puerto Rican descent and appealed to settler and Latino voters as she introduced the vice president.

“[Trump] has consistently worked to divide us. At Madison Square Garden, he cause to remembered us who he really is and how he really feels,” Lopez said. “It wasn’t just Puerto Ricans that were offended that day, it was every Latino in this territory.”

Both campaigns have been amping up their Latino voter outreach efforts as Nov. 5 gets closer. Stand up week, Trump hosted a roundtable in Florida with Latino business leaders, while Telemundo aired a pre-taped to with Harris.