Harris’ campaign opened up much more space for Sunday’s rally, and more than 7,500 people attended, the campaign said.
It marked Harris’ second stop in Las Vegas since President Joe Biden scrapped his re-election bid in July.
It’s the economy, stupid Harris spent much of her speech outlining her already-announced plans to bolster the economy.
The policy and community-focused ads touch on topics including public safety, the economy, immigration and health care without explicitly describing Latinos as a vital voting bloc.
“Vice President Harris is putting everyday, middle-class, working families first — families like mine, families like yours.
Vice President Kamala Harris continued her tour of battleground states on Sunday in Las Vegas, where she rallied thousands of supporters behind her economic and immigration policies and urged them to plan to vote to help her “underdog” candidacy win. This comes as the fiercely competitive presidential election cycle is almost over.
In her roughly 25-minute speech, Harris positioned herself as the only contender with policies that will help Americans while addressing illegal border crossings and lowering living expenses. She did not, however, unveil any new policies. Voters across the country consistently rank immigration and the economy as their top concerns. Harris has recently gained credibility as someone who can handle these issues, but Democratic messaging on the economy has frequently been undermined by persistent inflation that followed the pandemic.
The event was held at the World Market Center in downtown Las Vegas, which is where more than 6,000 supporters of the former president Donald Trump gathered two weeks prior. For the Sunday rally, Harris’ campaign cleared out a lot more space, and the campaign reported that over 7,500 people showed up.
Since President Joe Biden opted not to run for reelection in July, Harris had made two trips to Las Vegas. Last month, she organized one of the biggest political rallies in Nevada’s modern history at the Thomas and Mack Center, drawing over 12,000 attendees. Earlier this year, Harris made six trips to Nevada to support President Biden.
In the presidential race, where Harris has consistently positioned herself as the underdog, Nevada is undoubtedly one of the pivotal states that could decide the winner. Some rally attendees were shocked to learn that Harris and Trump are tied for the state’s six electoral votes, according to polls that are consistently accurate.
Jay Cloetens, a 55-year-old printer technician, said, “Every morning when I wake up and I see polls where it’s a horse race, I am completely confused.”. It’s so absurd, and yet it could go either way: is this satire or is this real? “.
The Indy’s key conclusions from Sunday’s rally are listed below.
Stupid, the economy is the problem.
A large portion of Harris’ speech was devoted to summarizing her previously disclosed economic stimulus plans.
Her plans included tax breaks of up to $50,000 for individuals launching small businesses, raising the federal child tax credit for new babies from $2,000 to $6,000, and lowering the college degree prerequisite for federal employment.
Voters across the country, but especially in Las Vegas, where the pandemic severely damaged the hotel sector, are concerned about the state of the economy. According to data released by state economists in June, although Nevada’s job growth rate since the pandemic ranks first nationally, the state also has one of the highest unemployment rates. Additionally, while inflation is slowly declining, wage growth has continued to lag behind it.
Given that the cost of child care has increased more quickly than wages, a recent University of Maryland poll finds that over 73% of Nevadans are in favor of raising the child tax credit to $3,600 and making it fully refundable—that is, paid out even in the event that a family is tax-exempt—in order to bring it in line with the child tax credits during the pandemic that ran out in 2022.
A proposal to eliminate taxes on tips is another uncommon area of agreement between the two candidates, which was first put forth by Trump in June and later endorsed by Harris in August. This agreement exists in Sin City.
Jasmin Newsom, a 19-year-old College of Southern Nevada student who attended the rally on Sunday, stated she supported the policy but thought it didn’t matter that Trump came up with it first. Harris did not bring up the policy during the event.
“That doesn’t seem to mean much to us, though. She simply has a concern for families in general, according to Newsom. She perceives those of us in the lower class more than Donald Trump because she was not raised in a higher social class. “.
The Biden administration’s implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, which capped monthly insulin prices at $35 for Medicare recipients, according to Helen Coombs, a 68-year-old retiree who recently enrolled in Medicare with her diabetic spouse, was critical to her family’s well-being.
More homes, but what about on land owned by the federal government?
Harris reiterated her plan she unveiled last month to address the affordable housing crisis facing the country on Sunday.
She promoted her proposal to construct 3 million new homes across the country and offer qualified first-time homebuyers $25,000 in down payment assistance.
The costs of necessities, such as groceries, are still too high, Harris said, despite the fact that the economy is performing well overall.
Releasing federally owned land for housing development is a topic that Harris did not address in her remarks on Sunday or in her general housing plan. The majority of land in Nevada is owned by the federal government, which restricts its use and development. Both Democratic members of Congress and the state’s Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, have expressed support for the opening up of these lands.
Prior to the lands’ opening, Trump promised to expand the state’s film industry in Las Vegas earlier this month. He claimed that the federally owned land would have “ultra low regulations”—a point that is missing from Nevada lands bills that are stuck in Congress. However, that policy is probably going to be addressed at the state level, as suggested by tax credits.
Environmentalists contend that any land bill should adequately safeguard the environment, while opponents of the release of federal lands for development have advocated for upward development rather than urban sprawl. In the event of wildfires or other natural disasters, the development of more land could put a strain on or impede public services. It also calls for possibly expensive infrastructure.
the focus on immigration.
After touring a section of the U.S. S. Harris mainly adhered to her standard campaign rhetoric on immigration, even though she supported a stronger immigration policy and the Arizona–Mexico border.
With higher criminal penalties for repeat offenders and a requirement that asylum claims be submitted at ports of entry, Harris’ new strategy would go beyond the Biden administration’s crackdown on unauthorized border crossings.
Prior to being elected vice president, she supported much more lax immigration enforcement measures, such as decriminalizing crossing the border without authorization. However, polls indicate that voters now have more faith in Trump than in her on immigration. Should Trump win the presidency, he has promised to carry out the biggest mass deportation program in American history.
At the event on Sunday, Harris reiterated positions intended to appease various Democratic Party factions, advocating for a route to citizenship for individuals brought to the U.S. S. illegitimately as minors, and accusing Trump of sabotaging bipartisan legislation that would have granted the Biden administration the power to “close” the border, or stop considering the majority of asylum claims, should the number of encounters with migrants surpass a predetermined threshold.
Attendee Michelle Waters, 61, spoke out loudly during the rally about Trump’s increasing anti-immigrant rhetoric, which included him repeating the unfounded rumor that immigrants from Haiti were consuming people’s pets in Ohio.
We all came from somewhere, so we’re all immigrants, right?” Waters questioned. “He immigrated with his wife. Immigrants comprise the entire population of the United States. “.
appealing to people of Latin American descent.
Harris specifically targeted Latinos, stating that they “are the fastest growing segment of our economy” and pledging to support their “ambitious aspirations” and dreams by offering a $50,000 tax deduction to those launching new ventures.
It represented the campaign’s strategy for gaining support from Latino voters, a significant and expanding voting bloc in Nevada. Ads targeting Spanish- and English-speaking Latino voters in swing states like Nevada have been a part of the Harris campaign’s outreach. The community-focused advertisements and policy discuss immigration, public safety, the economy, and health care without specifically characterizing Latinos as a crucial voting bloc.
Four years ago, Harris’s support among Latinos nationally was substantially higher; however, a recent Telemundo poll released on Sunday found her leading by 14 percentage points. UnidosUS found that among Nevada Latinos, Harris had a 23 percent advantage over Trump; however, this is still less than Biden’s margin of victory in 2020.
Harris was introduced by Clark County fire captain Noe Quintero, a Mexican immigrant’s son. Speaking occasionally in Spanish, he told a story about his life as a middle-class worker, father, and husband, emphasizing his aspirations for improved healthcare for his daughter, who suffers from a genetic disorder that impacts her brain development, and reproductive freedom.
He argued in favor of Harris’s economics.
According to Quintero, “I want my children to live in a country [where] you don’t have to work multiple jobs to put food on the table.”. “Common working middle-class families, like mine and yours, are the first priority for Vice President Harris.”. She will fight for the union jobs my community needs and for cost-cutting measures. “.
This article was contributed to by reporter Tabitha Mueller.
