In some ways, Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign in Arizona is winding down right where it began — courting Latino voters.
In the final days before the 2024 presidential election, the campaign has focused its sights on Maryvale, a community in west Phoenix with a 77% Latino or Hispanic population.
Shortly after Harris launched her campaign, her team came to Maryvale in July at an event featuring civil rights icon Dolores Huerta and campaign manager Julia Chavez Rodrigues, the granddaughter of labor organizer Cesar Chavez.
And the campaign has come back to Maryvale time and time again since then, including in recent weeks when vice presidential candidate Tim Walz visited Trevor Browne High School. Harris then made what could be her final appearance in Arizona before the election on Thursday in Maryvale, where she hosted a rally and concert with popular Norteño band Los Tigres del Norte.
“There are, in Arizona, 2.3 million Latinos,” Democratic field organizer Melvin Altamirano said at a party office in Maryvale on Wednesday. “You know, that could make a huge change in the electoral vote this cycle.”
The Republican slate has shown a similar focus on winning over those voters, making a number of campaign stops in recent days in states with large Latino populations, including Arizona, Nevada and even New Mexico — a historically Democratic state.
Both campaigns’ focus drives home the important role Latinos — who represent 15% of eligible voters — play in the coalition of voters each party is hoping will propel them to victory next week.
“We represent 33% of the population, and that's a huge percentage, right?” Altamirano told volunteers on Wednesday. “And I just tell my friends, you know, imagine if all of us get involved, the changes that we could see right in our lives.”
But efforts to gain that support have yielded mixed results, with Republicans making some inroads with Latino voters, especially men.
According to CNN, polls show Harris leading Trump among Latino voters by about 13%. That comes in below the 26% lead President Joe Biden held over Trump in 2020. And NPR reported other polls show a significant gender gap in Harris’ support “with a double-digit divide with Latinas ahead of Latino men,” a gap reflected in the broader electorate as well.
Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego, who is running for Arizona’s open U.S. Senate seat, said he believes that gender gap is “an issue of economics.”
“Latino men pride themselves on making sure they can provide for their families, they can buy a home, and it’s just been tough,” said Gallego, who is hosting a rodeo event for the Harris campaign at Rancho Ochoa in south Phoenix on Friday.
“And there’s no denying the economic situation is tough for Latino men. And what we’re doing on my campaign is communicating to them that we’re working to make sure that they’re going to be able to live the American dream — buy a home, start a business and actually succeed and provide for their families.”
The Trump campaign has regularly used the economy to attack Harris, blaming the Biden administration for inflation and high cost of living.
Trump has also criticized Harris for the current administration’s handling of immigration and security at the southern border. Polls have shown that immigration and border security are top issues for Latino voters.
“I happen to think that the border is the single biggest issue. I think the border is a bigger issue than inflation,” Trump said at a campaign stop in Arizona on Thursday.
Experts and political observers have warned against treating the Latino voting bloc as a monolith, noting it is made up of a diverse mix of individuals — from new citizens to those whose families have been in the U.S. for generations — who can trace their roots to dozens of different countries.
That diversity is reflected in their political priorities, too.
The Arizona Republic reported that a recent survey by Arizona State University found those top issues include jobs, wage improvement and border security. The survey also found that a majority of Latino voters in Arizona support Harris but a plurality also “somewhat or strongly” support Proposition 314, an aggressive piece of border security legislation sent to the Arizona ballot by Republican lawmakers.
