Voters mark their ballots on Nov. 5, 2024 in Tryon, North Carolina. (Photo by Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Despite more Latino men shifting more Republican, a majority continued to vote Democratic in 2024, new polling released Tuesday reveals.
The findings from the 2024 American Electorate Voter Poll came a week after the historic presidential race in which Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris to win his second White House term. Both heavily targeted Latino voters throughout their campaigns.
“The national exit polls are wrong about Latinos in general and Latino men in particular,” said Matt Barreto, co-founder of Barreto-Segura Partners Research, during a Tuesday media briefing on the poll’s findings.
Among voters in the poll, 56% of Latino men said they voted for Harris, compared to 43% who selected Trump.
Roughly two-thirds of Latino women voters voted for Harris, while about one-third chose Trump.
Some exit polls, in contrast, emphasized the movement of Latino voters toward Trump.
Data scientists and polling experts at Barreto-Segura Partners Research, the African American Research Collaborative and Harvard University conducted the survey, which several national organizations sponsored.
Battleground states
Between Oct. 18 and Nov. 4, the survey targeted more than 9,000 Latino, Black, Native American, Asian American and white voters in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The survey also provided additional data for California, Florida and Texas, given the large share of minority voters in those three states.
“We’re extremely confident that our sample is accurate, that it is an accurate portrait of Latino men and Latino women, and that it is balanced to match their demographics, and that it was available in Spanish at every stopping of the survey,” added Barreto, who was a pollster and adviser to the Harris campaign.
“Young voters in particular of every racial and ethnic group shifted to be more Republican as compared to 2020 — this was not driven by any individual particular racial group, but all young voters shifted compared to 2020,” he added.
A shift of all groups towards the GOP
Henry Fernandez, CEO of the African American Research Collaborative, said “this election was not about one group moving towards the Republican Party, but instead a shift of virtually every group towards the GOP by relatively small but consistent margins, largely due to concerns about the cost of living.”
“While voters of color voted majority for Harris and white voters, majority for Trump, this shift towards the GOP occurred across almost all groups, even those like younger voters that the Democratic Party has relied on for its future success,” Fernandez said.
He added that “this weakening of support for Democrats occurred even as key issues championed by Democrats did extremely well, both in ballot initiatives across the country and in our poll.”
Among all Latino voters, more than 6 in 10 said they voted for Harris, compared to a little over one-third who chose Trump.
Meanwhile, more than half of all Latino voters felt that Democrats would do a better job at addressing the issue most important to them, compared to about one-third who felt Republicans would.
Inflation, health care cited
Across all racial and ethnic groups of voters surveyed, inflation, health care costs and jobs and the economy proved to be the most important issues.
Abortion and reproductive rights also proved to be an important issue for voters across all groups, followed by housing costs and affordability and immigration reform for immigrants already in the United States.
Roughly three quarters of voters across racial and ethnic groups were in support of a federal law that would “guarantee access to abortion and give women control over their own private medical decisions.”
The majority of Black, Latino, Native American and Asian American voters also expressed worry about Project 2025 — a sweeping conservative agenda from the Heritage Foundation.
Trump has sought to distance himself from the platform, though some former members of his administration helped write it.
The Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, gives her “closing argument” of the campaign in a speech on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 29, 2024. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
The fallout from a comedian’s racially charged joke at a rally for former President Donald Trump continued Wednesday as the campaign for the presidency raced toward its final weekend, with Democrats on the defensive about President Joe Biden’s reaction to the joke.
Republicans claimed Biden labeled Trump supporters as “garbage,” while Democrats insisted Biden was being misinterpreted, and a battle over the placement of an apostrophe in Biden’s comment spread from the White House briefing room to campaign stops.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday further clarified Biden’s comment, made on a Tuesday evening call to rally Latino voters. Biden brought up comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s remark at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage.”
“They’re good, decent, honorable people,” Biden said Tuesday of Puerto Ricans who live in his home state of Delaware. “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
An initial White House transcript of the call placed an apostrophe after the word “supporters,” making its meaning about multiple Trump supporters. A later transcript placed the possessive inside the word, so it read as “supporter’s,” making it about a single supporter, Hinchcliffe.
Biden posted on X Tuesday evening that was his intent.
“Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage—which is the only word I can think of to describe it,” Biden’s post read. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, also told reporters early Wednesday that it was wrong to disparage people over political affiliation, while noting Biden clarified he referred only to Hinchcliffe. The flap over Biden’s comments came just as Harris was giving her “closing argument” speech on the Ellipse on Tuesday night before a crowd in the tens of thousands.
“Let me be clear,” she said. “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”
Latino voters in general and Puerto Ricans in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania in particular are seen as a crucial voting bloc in the closing days of the campaign, and both campaigns are trying to get their support.
Jean-Pierre said from the White House briefing room Wednesday that Biden does not think Trump supporters are “garbage.”
“What I can say is that the president wanted to make sure that his words were not being taken out of context,” she said. “And so he wanted to clarify, and that’s what you heard from the president. He was very aware. And I would say I think it’s really important that you have a president that cares about clarifying what they said.”
Trump repeatedly has said the United States is the “garbage can of the world” as a result of Biden’s immigration policies.
Rubio: Harris camp should apologize
But Trump and other Republicans jumped on Biden’s remark, immediately comparing it to 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s comment that many Trump supporters comprised “a basket of deplorables.” That comment was seen as damaging to Clinton’s campaign against Trump.
At a Tuesday evening Trump rally in Pennsylvania, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida disclosed news of Biden’s statement.
“I hope their campaign is about to apologize for what Joe Biden just said,” Rubio said. “We are not garbage. We are patriots who love America.”
“Wow, that’s terrible,” Trump added. “Remember Hillary, she said deplorable, and then she said irredeemable, right? But she said deplorable. That didn’t work out. Garbage I think is worse, right?”
Harris brings closing argument in N.C.
At a Wednesday afternoon rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, Harris echoed some of the themes she sounded in the “closing argument” speech she gave Tuesday night.
She urged voters in the battleground state to “turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who has been trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other.”
She said Trump was focused on personal grievances and seeking revenge on political opponents, while she would work toward improving voters’ lives.
“There are many big differences between he and I,” she said. “But I would say a major contrast is this: If he is elected, on day one, Donald Trump will walk into that office with an enemies list. When I am elected, I will walk in with a to-do list.”
First on her list would be lowering the costs of health care, child care and other expenses for families, she said.
Harris appealed directly to disaffected Republicans, saying she would seek common ground with those she disagrees with. That approach, she said, was also in contrast to Trump, who used charged language to describe his opponents and pledged to retaliate against them.
“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy,” she said. “He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at the table. And I pledge to be a president for all Americans, and to always put country above party and self.”
Harris won another endorsement from a nationally known Republican Wednesday, with former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger saying he would vote for her despite policy disagreements.
Trump also campaigned in North Carolina on Wednesday, in Rocky Mount, a town in a more rural part of the state about 50 miles east of Raleigh.
He said his campaign was a welcoming one to all races and religions and said Harris was the one running “a campaign of hate” toward Trump and his supporters, while lobbing an insult at the vice president.
“Kamala, a low-IQ individual, is running a campaign of hate, anger and retribution,” he said, repeating a term he has used for her before.
Election integrity
The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee said Wednesday they won a court case in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, over early voting hours, RNC officials said on a call Wednesday afternoon.
A judge in the key swing county extended the deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot after some voters said that long lines forced them to miss the 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline.
On the press call, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said a Trump supporter had been arrested after telling people in line near the deadline to remain in line.
Party officials, including Trump’s daughter-in-law, RNC Co-Chair Lara Trump, said the result bolstered their confidence in a free and fair election.
“We want to make people all across this country feel good about the process of voting in the United States of America,” Lara Trump said. “It is so foundational to who we are as a country that we trust our electoral process and this type of work allows exactly for that.”
Lara Trump said the party was “incredibly confident” in its staffers dedicated to ensuring the election is fair.
The issue has been a major priority for Republicans since Donald Trump and others claimed, without evidence, that election fraud caused his 2020 re-election loss.
That claim was rejected in scores of courts and a federal grand jury indicted Trump on four felony counts for using the election fraud lie to inspire the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump and allies have also speculated that his political opponents would seek to use illegal means, including voting by noncitizens, this year.
But in a departure from that rhetoric Wednesday, the RNC officials voiced confidence that the 2024 results would be trustworthy.
“I think it’s really important that we get the word spread loud and clear that we are taking this seriously, that you can trust American elections,” Lara Trump said. “In 2024, we want to re-establish any trust that may have been lost previously.”
The Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, speaks at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump promised “America’s new golden age” of closed borders and world peace as he rallied a capacity crowd at Madison Square Garden in his home city in the final stretch of the 2024 presidential contest against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump headlined the over six-hour rally that featured nearly 30 speakers, some of whom insulted Latinos and attacked Democratic nominee Harris over her race, and he vowed “to make America great again, and it’s going to happen fast.”
“It is called America first, and it is going to happen as no one has ever seen before,” Trump said, adding “We will not be overrun, we will not be conquered. We will be a free and proud nation once again. Everyone will prosper.”
But the event also generated intense criticism from Democrats for remarks made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who spoke during the afternoon hours ahead of Trump and called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now.”
The joke could prove politically problematic for Republicans, who have been courting the Latino vote, and particularly in the swing state of Pennsylvania, where hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans live.
The United States is home to 5.6 million Puerto Ricans, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data, and about 8% of them live in Pennsylvania.
Hinchcliffe, who hosts a podcast called “Kill Tony,” also said Latinos “love making babies” and made a lewd joke about them.
Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, whose state is also home to hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans, on X wrote, “It’s not funny and it’s not true. Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans!”
Democrats brought in U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is Puerto Rican, and the vice presidential nominee, Tim Walz, to blast the joke. “When you have some a-hole calling Puerto Rico floating garbage … that’s what they think about anyone who makes less money than them,” she said.
Harris on Sunday in Philadelphia laid out a new policy proposal focused on Puerto Rico.
The former president’s 80-minute speech mostly featured his standard campaign promises and stories, though he added a proposal to his list of tax breaks — a benefit for those caring for sick or aging relatives in their homes. Harris also introduced a policy for at-home care for seniors earlier in October.
Trump repeated his popular pledges to “get transgender insanity the hell out of our schools,” “stop the invasion” at the border and restore peace to Ukraine and the Middle East, which he claims would have never become war-torn had he been in office.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told the crowd his time campaigning around the country for Trump has revealed “something very powerful out there happening among the base.”
“I’m telling you, there’s an energy out there that we have not seen before,” Johnson said.
NYC stop a detour
Trump held the rally nine days before polls close on Nov. 5. Nearly 42 million Americans have already voted early, in person or by mail, in more than two dozen states, according to the University of Florida Election Lab’s early voting tracker.
Trump’s New York stop detoured from the seven battleground states in this election’s spotlight — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. His campaign also announced on Sunday two upcoming stops in New Mexico and Virginia during the contest’s final week.
Still, both candidates once again hit Pennsylvania over the weekend, with Trump delivering remarks Saturday at Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania, and Harris spending Sunday rallying a crowd in Philadelphia.
Harris spoke to the press in Philadelphia, a city she described as “a very important part of our path to victory.”
“I’m feeling very optimistic about the enthusiasm that is here and the commitment that folks of every background have to vote and to really invest in the future of our country,” Harris told reporters.
The vice president criticized Trump for using “dark and divisive language,” including his comments this week that America is the “garbage can of the world.”
“I think people are ready to turn the page,” she said.
Tucker Carlson goes after Harris
Numerous speakers attacked Harris’ record — a standard feature of political rallies — but some comments invoked her race. Trump’s childhood best friend, David Rem, clutched a crucifix and told the crowd Harris is the “antichrist.”
Conservative media personality Tucker Carlson described Harris as a “Samoan Malaysian low IQ former California prosecutor” as he was spinning a scenario in which the Democrats reflect on their candidate post-election.
“Donald Trump has made it possible for the rest of us to tell the truth about the world around us,” Carlson said earlier in his speech.
Harris’ mother was Indian, and her father is Jamaican. Trump has previously questioned her race during his interview with the National Association of Black Journalists.
Carlson, who was fired by Fox News in April 2023, accused Democrats of telling “lies,” and said in a mocking voice, “Jan. 6 was an insurrection, they were unarmed, but it was very insurrection-y.”
The violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 by thousands of Trump supporters came after months of the former president refusing to concede the 2020 presidential election, which President Joe Biden won.
Twenty-eight speakers preceded Trump, beginning at just after 2 p.m. and holding court until the former president took the stage at 7:13 p.m. Trump’s wife, Melania, in a rare campaign rally appearance, introduced him and spoke briefly.
The lineup included the founder of Death Row Records, TV personality Dr. Phil and pro wrestling’s Hulk Hogan and Dana White — some of whom spoke at July’s four-day Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, whose super PAC has flooded more than $75 million into the campaign, was among the cast of speakers.
Musk told the crowd to vote early and that he wants to see a “massive crushing victory.”
“Make the margin of victory so big that you know what can’t happen,” he said, referring to debunked claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Focus on NYC
The day was heavy on the mystique of New York and Trump’s ties to it. New York City is not only where Trump grew up and followed his father’s path into real estate, but now also where he was convicted in May in a Manhattan court on 34 state felony counts for a hush money scheme involving a porn star.
A vendor hawking campaign gear to supporters waiting to enter Madison Square Garden Sunday morning advertised a hat that read “I’m voting for the convicted felon.”
Several speakers credited Trump with changing the New York City skyline. The 58-story Trump Tower stands on 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan, among his other real estate holdings on the island.
“New York City made Donald Trump, but Donald Trump also made New York City,” said Lara Trump, Trump’s daughter-in-law and co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
Howard Lutnick, chair and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and co-chair of the Trump campaign’s “transition team,” told the story of losing just over 650 of his employees in the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001 masterminded by known terrorist Osama bin Laden.
“We must elect Donald J. Trump president because we must crush jihad,” Lutnick said.
Lutnick bantered with Musk on stage, estimating the pair could possibly cut $2 trillion in federal spending under a second Trump administration. Trump has chosen the duo to lead a commission on government efficiency if elected.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who took a leading role in spreading Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election, received a standing ovation from the full arena.
He accused Biden and Harris of spreading “socialism, fascism and communism.”
Giuliani, a major player in Trump’s false claim that he won the 2020 election, appeared at the rally just days after a federal judge in New York ordered him to surrender his apartment and valuables to election workers in Georgia whom he was found guilty of defaming.
Giuliani, along with a handful of other speakers, also implied that Democrats are responsible for the two assassination attempts on Trump.
“I’m not gonna do conspiracy,” Giuliani said, “but it’s funny that they tried to do everything else, and now they’re trying to kill him.”
The accusation was a theme throughout the daylong event. Speaker after speaker implied or outright blamed Democrats for the two attempts on Trump’s life, never mentioning the perpetrators. The gunman in the first attempt was killed by law enforcement, and the second, who never fired at Trump, has been charged in Florida; neither has been found to have ties to Democrats.
Trump focused some of his comments on New York City, referencing his childhood and adding that he felt sympathy for the city’s indicted Mayor Eric Adams.
The rally ended, not with Trump’s signature closer “YMCA” by the Village People, but with a live rendition of “New York, New York” by Christopher Macchio.
An employee adds a stack of mail-in ballots to a machine that automatically places the ballots in envelopes at Runbeck Election Services on Sept. 25, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. The company prints mail-in ballots for 30 states and Washington, D.C. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — With exactly two weeks until Election Day, millions of Americans have already cast their ballots via the mail or in person as Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump pursue voters through the battleground states.
Early in-person absentee voting kicked off Tuesday in Wisconsin, adding to the list of swing states where voters have already begun casting ballots, the Wisconsin Examiner reported.
Georgia, another battleground, saw record early voter turnout in its first week, amassing more than 1.4 million ballots cast, more than a quarter of the entire voter turnout total in the 2020 presidential election, the Georgia Recorder reported.
Two national polls released Tuesday show Harris with an edge, particularly among young voters. Reuters/Ipsos polling conducted from Oct. 16 through Monday found Harris up by a narrow 3 points, hardly a change from Ipsos’ findings the previous week.
The latest quarterly CNBC/Generation Lab survey found Harris commanding a 20-point lead among 18-to-34-year-olds.
All eyes on Latino voters
The Harris campaign early Tuesday alerted the press to an “opportunity agenda for Latino men.”
The proposal promises to provide 1 million forgivable loans up to $20,000 for Latino men “and others” in start-up funding, eliminate college degree requirements on certain jobs, and encourage first-time home ownership among Latinos by building affordable homes and offer a $25,000 tax break for new buyers — two policy ideas for all Americans she’s been touting for months.
Poll numbers released Monday showed Harris continuing to outperform Trump among Latino voters in the battlegrounds of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
A group of Christian Latinos showered Trump with praise in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday. With hands on Trump’s shoulders, religious leaders prayed over him at a roundtable event held at the Trump National Doral Golf Club.
Guillermo Maldonado, who founded the King Jesus International Ministry, said the election is “not a war between the left and the right. This is a war between good and evil. We can fight that, and we need spiritual weapons.”
“Father, we anointed him today, we anointed him to be the 47th president of the United States to restore the Biblical values. No weapon formed against him shall prosper,” Maldonado, who goes by the title ‘apostle,’ continued in his prayer over Trump. The event streamed live on C-SPAN.
Immediately after the prayer, Trump’s signature campaign song, “YMCA” by the Village People, blared and the roundtable leaders began passing books and hats for him to sign.
During the roundtable, Trump accused Harris of “sleeping” and “taking a day off.” He also, again, accused her of having a “low I.Q.”
“There’s something wrong with her,” he told the crowd.
Liz Cheney, CNN and Springsteen
Harris campaigned Monday with former U.S. House Republican Liz Cheney in suburban areas of three states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Cheney is the daughter of former GOP Vice President Dick Cheney, who is also backing Harris.
“For me, every single thing in my experience and in my background has played a part in my decision to endorse Vice President Harris,” said Liz Cheney, who was once the third-highest-ranking House Republican. “That begins with the fact that I’m a conservative and I know that the most conservative of all conservative principles is being faithful to the Constitution.”
According to her publicly available schedule, the vice president was scheduled to record two interviews Tuesday afternoon with NBC and Telemundo. And on Wednesday night at 9 Eastern, she’ll participate in a CNN town hall in Pennsylvania moderated by anchor Anderson Cooper.
Then on Thursday, Harris and former President Barack Obama will lead a “Get Out the Vote” rally, featuring a performance by Bruce Springsteen, in Georgia to encourage early voting.
On Friday the vice president will travel to Houston, Texas, to campaign on abortion rights. She will be accompanied by Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who’s trying to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
Trump cancels appearances, plans Georgia rallies
Trump canceled a scheduled appearance Tuesday at an event titled “Make America Healthy Again,” which was to feature guests Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Democratic lawmaker-turned-Republican Tulsi Gabbard.
Trump’s keynote speech set for Tuesday at a National Rifle Association event in Georgia was also canceled “due to scheduling conflicts.”
The former president also scrapped a planned early October interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” and recent scheduled appearances on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” and NBC News.
Trump is scheduled to host a rally Tuesday night in Greensboro, North Carolina, and on Wednesday his schedule shows two events — a “Believers and Ballots Faith Town Hall” in Zebulon, Georgia, with the state’s Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, as well as a rally for Turning Point PAC and Turning Point Action in Duluth, Georgia.
Trump is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech Thursday night in Las Vegas, Nevada, for Turning Point’s “United for Change Rally.”
Politico reported Tuesday that the former president will record an interview Friday with popular podcast host Joe Rogan at his studio in Austin, Texas.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, which is a mega church in Stonecrest, Georgia, on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024 as part of a “souls to the polls” push. Harris presented the stakes of the presidential race in stark terms: “And now we face this question: what kind of country do we want to live in? A country of chaos, fear and hate or a country of freedom, compassion and justice?” (Photo by Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder)
WASHINGTON — A new poll released Monday by a civic engagement group found that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris continues to grow her support with Latinos in critical battleground states.
In a tight presidential race, both campaigns have tried to court the Latino vote — one of the fastest-growing voting blocs.
The poll for Voto Latino by the firm GQR surveyed 2,000 Latinos registered to vote in the battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — although not Georgia — from Sept. 25 to Oct. 2.
Vice President Harris even outperformed President Joe Biden in several swing states compared to his 2020 presidential results, according to the poll.
In August, Harris had the support of about 60% of Latino voters compared to GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s 29%, according to the poll. Both candidates increased their support of that voting bloc in October, with Harris at 64% and Trump at 31%.
The poll found that Harris’ growth has come from young Latino voters, ages 18 to 29.
In the swing states of Arizona, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, the poll found that Harris outperforms with Latino voters compared to Biden’s estimated wins among Latinos in 2020. In Arizona, Biden had 61% of the Latino vote four years ago, and Harris now polls at about 66%, the survey said.
In Pennsylvania, Biden had 69% of the Latino vote compared to Harris now polling at 77%, and in North Carolina, Biden had 57% of the Latino vote compared to Harris’ support of 67%, the poll said.
In 2020, Biden won Arizona and Pennsylvania by slim margins but lost North Carolina to Trump.
Trump visits Asheville, Harris teams up with Liz Cheney
After Hurricane Helene’s destruction in late September, campaigning in western North Carolina resumed Monday.
Trump visited Asheville, North Carolina, Monday afternoon to survey the destruction left by the aftermath of the Category 4 hurricane. While there, he stressed the importance of early voting, which is already underway in the state.
“It’s vital that we not let this hurricane that has taken so much also take your voice,” Trump said. “You must get out and vote.”
Harris on Monday blitzed around the suburban areas of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin with former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming for “moderated conversations.”
Arnold Palmer, McDonald’s and Usher
With almost two weeks until Election Day on Nov. 5, both candidates have rolled out celebrities and political stunts in an effort to court every vote in an election that is essentially a dead heat.
“This is a guy that was all man,” Trump said of Palmer, “when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there they said, ‘oh my God, that’s unbelievable.’”
On Sunday Trump visited a closed McDonald’s, where for 20 minutes he donned an apron, worked the fryers and helped put together orders. He served a few pre-screened people who won the opportunity to partake in the campaign event via a lottery.
The visit to the Golden Arches came after Harris touted her work experience at a McDonald’s in Alameda, California, while she was a college student. Trump has cast doubt, without evidence, on whether that actually happened.
On Monday afternoon, after Harris’ jet landed in Michigan, a reporter shouted a question at her as to whether she ever worked at McDonald’s.
“Did I? I did!” Harris said, smiling and putting her thumb up, according to the pool report.
Harris returned to Georgia on Saturday, where she energized her base to take advantage of early voting. More than 1.3 million people have voted in Georgia, according to the Secretary of State’s turnout datahub.
She held a campaign rally alongside R&B singer Usher and visited Sunday church services in the Atlanta area as part of a “souls to the polls” effort.
Another intense week on the way
This week, Trump will attend a roundtable with Latino leaders on Tuesday in Miami, Florida. An earlier planned event with the National Rifle Association in Savannah, Georgia, was canceled.
In the evening, Trump will then travel to Greensboro, North Carolina, for a rally. His running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance will be campaigning in Arizona.
On Tuesday, Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will stump in Madison, Wisconsin, with former President Barack Obama to encourage early voting.
On Wednesday night, Harris will participate in a CNN town hall in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
Trump on Wednesday will hold a faith-related town hall in Zebulon, Georgia, in the late afternoon. In the evening, he’ll head to Duluth, Georgia, to appear as a special guest at the conservative Turning Point PAC and Turning Point Action Rally.
On Thursday, Vance will partake in a town hall in Detroit, Michigan, with NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo.
Back in Georgia, Harris and Obama will headline a get-out-the-vote rally.
People demonstrate and call out words of encouragement to detainees held inside the Metropolitan Detention Center after marching to decry Trump administration immigration and refugee policies on June 30, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON —Top advisers to the Kamala Harris presidential campaign held a Wednesday press conference including children who were separated from their parents under the highly criticized Trump administration immigration policy, as a warning of what a second term under the former president could bring for the Latino community.
The press conference in Doral, Florida, came ahead of a late Wednesday Univision town hall at which GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump will talk with undecided Latino voters.
Four children at the press conference recounted stories of being separated from a parent by immigration officials during the Trump administration and the lasting trauma it caused. Their full names and ages were not provided by the campaign.
With 20 days until Nov. 5 and early voting underway in many states, both campaigns have tried to court Latino voters, as they are the second-largest group of eligible voters.
“The Latino vote will decide this election,” Democratic Texas U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, who serves as co-chair for the Harris campaign, said at the press conference.
Harris campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said that for the next 20 days, Democrats will continue to reach out to Latinos and stress “the threat that Donald Trump is to Latino communities everywhere.”
Harris looks for Latino support
The 2024 presidential election is essentially a dead heat between Harris and Trump. Latino voter preferences largely resemble the 2020 presidential election, when President Joe Biden defeated Trump 61% to 36% in earning the Latino vote, according to the Pew Research Center.
Harris, the Democratic nominee, currently has a smaller lead over Trump with Latinos, 57% to 39%, according to the Pew Research Center.
Escobar warned what a second Trump administration could bring to the Latino community.
“I hear a lot of Latinos who say that they want to vote for Donald Trump, that they appreciate some of his policies,” she said.
Escobar said that Trump has not only promised to carry out mass deportations, but go after pathways to legal immigration. She argued that architects of some of the former president’s harshest immigration policies are top level advisers, like Stephen Miller, who has proposed eliminating legal immigration like humanitarian parole programs and Temporary Protected Status.
Miller has also proposed a program to strip naturalized citizens of their U.S. citizenship — an initiative that Miller said would be “turbocharged” under a second Trump administration.
“For Latinos who think that when Donald Trump insults immigrants, or when he talks about mass deportation that you’re thinking he’s talking about somebody else, oh no, no, he’s talking about you,” Escobar, who represents the border town of El Paso, said.
Escobar said there would be no guardrails for a second Trump administration and programs like family separation could be implemented. The separation occurred at the border as asylum-seeking parents were put into criminal detention and sometimes deported.
“These kids who have lived through horrific trauma, through the pain of being separated from their parents, what you heard from them moments ago will be far worse if Trump gets a second term,” she said. “In Donald Trump’s first term, he had people around him who actually tried to stop him. In a second term, not only will those guardrails not exist, but those people who were there to stop him in the first place are long gone.”
Trump has declined to say whether he would resume family separations if given a second term, also known as the zero-tolerance policy.
“Well, when you have that policy, people don’t come. If a family hears that they’re going to be separated, they love their family. They don’t come. So I know it sounds harsh,” Trump said during a CNN town hall in May 2023.
Escobar said that she is hoping that at Wednesday night’s town hall, Trump will be pressed on whether he would reimplement his family separation policy.
The Biden administration established a task force to reunite the 3,881 children who were separated from their families from 2017 to 2021.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, answers questions at a Univision town hall on Oct. 10, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Felipe Cuevas/TelevisaUnivision)
Vice President Kamala Harris fielded a series of questions from undecided Latino voters on Thursday during an emotional town hall in Las Vegas hosted by Univision.
Harris continues to court this key voting bloc as Election Day rapidly approaches and she and former President Donald Trump vie for the Oval Office in an extremely close race.
Thursday’s town hall — featuring questions on subjects ranging from immigration and health care, to abortion and the economy — came as the Harris campaign launched the “Hombres con Harris” initiative this week to mobilize Latino men in battleground states.
Trump’s town hall with Univision was postponed to next week due to Hurricane Milton.
A ‘broken’ immigration system
Harris heard from one audience member who said her mother died six weeks ago without being able to obtain legal status and could not get the medical care she needed.
The veep expressed her sympathy and pointed to the country’s “broken immigration system.”
“The reality is that in terms of having access to health care, had your mother been able to gain citizenship, she would have been entitled to health care that may have alleviated her suffering and yours,” she said.
Harris also mentioned her own mother and her immigration to the United States, saying: “I know what it is like to have a hardworking mother who loves you and to lose that, but I know that her spirit is alive.” Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, emigrated from India and was a cancer researcher.
During the town hall, Harris also repeated her vow she would, if elected, bring back and sign into law a major bipartisan border security bill, while blaming its legislative failure on Trump.
She also said she will “do the work of focusing on what we must do to have an orderly and humane pathway to earn citizenship for hardworking people.”
Harris was also asked about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that is currently under threat and designed to protect children — also known as Dreamers — who were brought into the country illegally from deportation.
“I just think it’s important that we recognize who this population of young people are and agree that they have been so productive, they are prepared to do what is necessary by law, and I think it should compel us to agree they should not have to live in fear, but should have an ability to be on a pathway to earn their citizenship,” she said.
“So, it is one of my priorities, and I’ve worked on this in terms of Dreamers for many, many years, and I’ll continue to fight for them.”
Health care, abortion access and the economy
Harris said she firmly and deeply believes “access to health care is a right and should be a right, and not just a privilege of those who can afford it or have access to it easily” when asked how she plans to improve the health care system.
She also echoed her commitment to reproductive rights, saying if elected, she will “probably sign back into law the protections of Roe v. Wade, which basically just says it’s the person’s decision, not the government’s decision.”
Harris also touched on the broad Medicare plan she unveiled earlier this week that would strengthen the insurance program’s coverage to include long-term care for seniors in their homes.
The plan focuses on the “sandwich generation,” which refers to Americans who are raising their children while also caring for their aging parents.
Asked about how she would help the middle class, Harris highlighted her economic plan, including $6,000 in tax relief for new parents for the first year of their child’s life, as much as $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers and an up to $50,000 tax break for first-time small businesses.
Last month, Trump pledged to carry out the “largest deportation in the history of our country” if elected — noting that Aurora would be one of the two places he’d start with.
The other, Trump said back in September, would be Springfield, Ohio — the center of false claims he’s made surrounding legal Haitian migrants.
Trump is set to hold several other rallies this weekend, including in: Reno, Nevada, later on Friday; Coachella, California, on Saturday; and Prescott Valley, Arizona, on Sunday.
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