Kamala Harris, Donald Trump vie for Latino vote as polls show dead heat race

Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump were both vying for the Latino vote on Tuesday, with polls showing the race in a dead heat.
Trump addressed a Latino-focused event at his resort in Doral, Fla., while Harris sat down for an interview with Spanish-language TV network Telemundo.
“Under my presidency, we had more jobs and more productivity. We had the best numbers,” Trump said, deriding Harris as “lazy as hell” and “low IQ.”
Trump later jetted back to North Carolina for a rally in Greenville. It was his second consecutive day campaigning in the Tarheel State, a potential sign of weakness for the Republican since he carried the state in both of the last elections.
For the Telemundo interview she taped Tuesday in Washington, Harris was set to discuss how her plan for a so-called opportunity economy will lower costs, increase their chances for homeownership and expand job opportunities for Latinos.
That interview will air in full as part of a half-hour special on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET. The interview will also be available on Noticias Telemundo’s YouTube, Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok accounts.
The veep also sat down with anchor Hallie Jackson for an interview on “NBC Nightly News.”
Harris said in that discussion that she and the campaign were prepared if Trump declares a premature victory in next month’s presidential election, but were focused on beating him before he can do so.
She stressed that Americans are being presented with a “very serious decision about what will be the future of our country,” and that her campaign represents a different path forward.
“I think part of what is important in this election is really not only turning the page, but closing the page and the chapter on an era that suggests that Americans are divided,” the VP said.
But she sidestepped a hypothetical question about pardoning Trump to help the nation “move on.”
“Let me tell you what’s going to help us move on,” Harris said. “I get elected president of the United States.”
She also appeared to attempt to put some distance between herself and President Joe Biden.
“I am running for president of the United States, Joe Biden is not,” Harris said. “My presidency will be about bringing a new generation of leadership to America that is focused on the work that we need to do to invest in the ambitions and aspirations of the American people.”
For Harris, the appearances were the latest in a weeks-long media blitz, including an interview on Fox News, while Trump has mostly stuck to friendly right-wing outlets.
The Democratic nominee will appear at a CNN town hall on Wednesday, an event that was originally earmarked for a second debate with Trump. He refused to face off again after viewers said Harris won their first and only clash on Sept. 10.
Overall, polls say the race remains a toss up with Election Day less than two weeks away and millions already casting their votes early.
Trump supporters say the polls have been narrowly moving towards him in the past few weeks, but the Harris campaign points to polls showing late-deciding voters breaking for her.
Pennsylvania is arguably the hardest fought of the battleground states and happens to have one of the fastest-growing Hispanic communities in the country.
It’s fertile ground for both Democrats and Republicans to test their strength among Latinos in a state where small margins decide who gets 19 electoral votes.
“This is the epicenter for Latino voters in Pennsylvania,” said Victor Martinez, a radio host who’s of Puerto Rican descent and lives in and broadcasts his show from Allentown. “I like it, because that means that they have to pay attention to us.”
Pennsylvania’s Latino eligible voter population has more than doubled since 2000 from 208,000 to 579,000, according to the Latino Data Hub from UCLA’s Latino Policy & Politics Institute. The population in cities like Allentown and Reading is now more than half Hispanic, with a majority being of Puerto Rican descent and a sizable portion of Dominican origin.