Kamala Harris and Donald Trump both see economic policy as their best chance to win over Latino voters. But their viewpoints are very different.
In an interview with Telemundo on Tuesday afternoon, Vice President Harris planned to highlight how her agenda would create more opportunities for Latino men — a strategy born out of nearly a dozen focus groups and polling.
The Democratic candidate intends to show his plan to double the number of registered apprentices. She wants to emphasize how she would remove college degree requirements for some federal government jobs and encourage private employers to do the same. And Ms. Harris wants to provide forgivable loans of up to $20,000 to each of 1 million small businesses.
Former President Trump, the Republican nominee, is extending his outreach by holding a roundtable with Latinos in the Miami suburb of Doral on Tuesday.
His campaign states that he will boast that employment, wages, and home ownership increased for Latinos during his time in office. The campaign also said he would argue that Ms Harris and President Joe Biden have trapped Latinos into high inflation and that “Trump is the only candidate who can bring prosperity back to America.”
The Trump and Harris campaigns see what could be an election-deciding opportunity with Latino men, who could change the outcome in states like Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada if their traditional support for Democrats falls away. Trump believes he has made inroads among Latino men. Harris’ team is trying to drum up support within the same group with the election just two weeks away.
This raises the question of whether memories of Trump’s presidency or the promise of new policies under Harris will do more to energize Latino voters.
Harris campaign pollster Matt Barreto said, “We’re confident that these policies resonate because we’ve seen them resonate in speeches and focus groups.” “It specifically tells Latino men about being successful and achieving the American dream.”
Both campaigns are trying to make gains with an increasingly diverse electorate in the final weeks of the campaign. Harris has also focused on black men, advocating for forgivable loans to small businesses. She has gone on the podcast “Call Her Daddy” to appeal to young women, while Trump has appeared on podcasts to target young men.
Trump participated in a town hall on Univision last week, where his keynote address to Latinos was that the economy was unprecedented during his White House tenure.
“We have the greatest economy in the history of our country,” Trump said. “Our economy is bad now primarily because of inflation. So we are going to get rid of inflation.”
The former president’s account of his economic record has generally not included the massive job losses and recession caused by the pandemic in 2020. Inflation is now at a relatively healthy 2.4%, but pessimism remains among voters about inflation reaching 9.1% in June 2022. Gasoline, groceries and housing became much more expensive.
On Univision, Trump said that increasing oil production would reduce overall inflation if he were elected. She has also suggested that a combination of tariff increases and tax cuts would help growth, although her campaign lacked details compared to the policy guide released by Harris’ team.
In a close race, the Harris campaign is betting that Latino men are becoming more aware of policy nuances as the election approaches.
Based on focus groups, Barreto said the Harris campaign found that Latino men particularly wanted access to apprenticeships that could give people without a college degree access to financially stable careers.
The latest data from the Labor Department shows there are 641,044 registered apprentices, which is higher than under the Trump administration, when apprenticeships peaked at 569,311 in 2020. Doubling that figure, as Harris has proposed, would bring the total number of apprenticeships to about 1.2 million over four years.
Latino men also expressed a need for access to capital and loans to start companies, as the Treasury Department reported on Oct. 10 that Latino business ownership is 40% above pre-pandemic levels and with better financing options. Can move forward.
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will be on Univision’s nationally syndicated El Bueno, La Mala, y el Fio show this week, while Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, will be interviewed this week by Univision’s nationally syndicated . Afternoon radio show, El Free-Gué Show. Emhoff will also be interviewed by Alex “El Genio” Lucas on Nueva Network Radio.
Trump hopes to convince Latinos that they can trust fellow businessmen like him, though he has also called for mass deportations of immigrants living in the country illegally.
“Hispanic people – they say you can’t generalize, but I think you can – they have amazing entrepreneurship and they have – oh, do you have such energy. Just get some rest, okay? Rest up,” Trump said at an event on Oct. 12. “You have a lot of ambition, you have a lot of energy, you’re very smart, and you’re really like natural entrepreneurs.”
published – October 22, 2024 10:08 pm IST