Kamala Harris returns to Phoenix in the latest campaign targeting Latinos

PHOENIX (AZ/AP family) — Vice President Kamala Harris returned to several battleground states, including Arizona, less than a week before the election, as polls show the Democratic candidate has a slight lead over former President Donald Trump in the polls.

She was joined at the Talking Stick Resort amphitheater in Phoenix by the legendary Regional Mexican team Los Tigres del Norte in the campaign’s latest effort to boost turnout among Latino voters, who have historically favored Democrats, and enable last-minute voting among the undecided and more socially conservative.

The band opened the Harris rally with a song that wants to get rid of the border and unite the resulting large country. Formed in the 1960s, the norteño band has resonated across the Mexican-American border and among generations of loyal fans.

“Arriba Kamala Harris!” and “Vamos Kamala!” – cheered the band members as they ended their performance. They also urged Phoenix residents to vote in English and Spanish.

Harris strongly opposed Trump’s anti-immigration views, but also said she would like to revive efforts to impose stricter border measures on migrants seeking asylum.

The vice president delivered her closing remarks, reminding the audience that five days before Election Day, Donald Trump focused on grievances and his political enemies.

“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t think that people who disagree with me are the enemy,” Harris said. “I want to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at the table. Because that’s how democracy works and that’s how real leaders work.”

At the rally, she promised that she would “be the president of all Americans.”

She also promised to reduce costs for everyone.

“My plan includes lowering child care costs, tax cuts for small businesses and reducing health care costs,” she said. “Donald Trump’s answer is trillion-dollar tax cuts for billionaires and corporations, and this time his plan is to impose a 20% domestic sales tax on everything you buy that is imported.”

Democratic leaders in Arizona have also rallied supporters in the Valley.

Mayors of Phoenix and Tucson, former MP. Gabby Giffords, Republican Ruben Gallego, Senator Mark Kelly and Governor Katie Hobbs energized participants.

AND 2022 Pew Research Center Study found that 15% of Latinos in the US identify as evangelical Protestants.

Among all American evangelicals, they constitute the fastest growing group. About half of Latino evangelicals identified as Republicans or right-leaning independents, while 44% identified as Democrats or left-leaning independents.

While Latinos in the U.S. generally favor Democratic candidates, a majority of Latino evangelicals supported Donald Trump in 2020. According to AP Votecast, about six in 10 Latino evangelical voters supported Trump in 2020, and four in 10 supported Biden.

Bench questionnaire released last month showed that about two-thirds of Latino Protestants planned to support Trump this year, while about two-thirds of Latino Catholics and religiously unaffiliated Latinos said they supported Vice President Kamala Harris.

Rep. Gallego, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, opened the rally for Harris by combining the U.S. Senate and presidential races. He is competing against Republican Kari Lake.

“If we fight together, we can number one: defeat Kari Lake, number two: defeat Donald Trump and number three: fight for a better future,” Gallego said.

Harris is urging Arizonans to make sure their ballots are counted. “We need you to vote for Arizona because we have five days left,” she said.

She says there is still a lot of work ahead of the campaign, but added: “Don’t be fooled, we will win.”

Additionally, Harris again used a new tactic when addressing protesters at her rallies. During her speech, she told the crowd that “everything is fine” when protesters interrupted the rally.

“Democracy can be complicated. But we believe in democracy,” she said as the crowd drowned out the protest.

The vice president was referring to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s comments earlier this week in which he said he would make “massive” changes to the Affordable Care Act, which expands health care coverage to millions of Americans.

The Republican speaker has sought to correct the comments and says he won’t repeal the program known as “Obamacare,” but Harris says it’s part of a broader GOP agenda to restrict access to health care and abortion across the country.

Harris says Trump’s comment about women ‘is offensive to everyone’

Harris she called on Americans on Wednesday to “stop pointing fingers at each other” as she tries to push forward President Joe Biden’s comments on the topic Donald Trump supporters and “garbage ” and focus on your Republican opponent in the final days of the race.

Harris said Donald Trump’s statement that he will protect women whether “they want it or not” shows the Republican presidential candidate does not understand women’s rights “to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies.” .

“By the way, I think it’s offensive to everyone,” Harris said before she set out to campaign in Arizona and Nevada, battlegrounds in the West.

Trump’s remarks come as he struggles to connect with women voters and as Harris courts women in both parties with a freedom-focused message. She argues that women should be free to make their own decisions about their bodies and that there will be further restrictions if Trump is elected.

Trump nominated three U.S. Supreme Court justices who constituted the conservative majority that struck down federal abortion laws. As the impact of the 2022 decision spreadshe began to acknowledge this at public events and through social media posts “would protect women” and make sure they don’t “think about abortion.”

At a rally near Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Wednesday evening, Trump told supporters that advisers had urged him to stop using the phrase because it was “inappropriate.”

He then added a new element to the line of protectors. He said he told his advisers, “Well, I’m going to do it whether women like it or not. I’m going to protect them.”

Harris said the remark was part of Trump’s troubling comments.

“This is just the latest in a long series of revelations by the former president about his thinking about women and their agency,” she said.

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