As the presidential election enters its final month, Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with undecided Latino voters at City Hall in Las Vegas on Thursday, lamenting a “broken” immigration system and rising prices for housing, health care and food. .
In a roughly hour-long discussion tape hosted by Univision and scheduled to air Thursday evening, Harris spoke about women who have struggled with the recent death of their undocumented mother and who have long been diagnosed with COVID-19. Since then, I have heard stories from women and other people who have faced one obstacle after another. A man who wants to find a path to citizenship for so-called “Dreamers” who have lost everything, and a man who seemed skeptical that Harris would emerge as the top Democratic candidate this summer.
In response, Harris touted her policy proposals, reflected on her middle-class upbringing, and said she is undecided that she is the best candidate to create more opportunities for immigrants and change the nation's health care system. tried to reassure voters.
But at times, Ms. Harris spoke in platitudes, rehashing her typical campaign themes of empathy and dignity without directly answering questions. He also did not reveal any new policy proposals.
In this conversation, we'll explore the topics that matter most to undecided Latino voters, a key voting bloc in the Silver State that could determine which candidate wins the state's six electoral votes and possibly the presidency. It became clear.
About 20 percent of registered voters in Nevada are Latino, and about half of them are not affiliated with any major political party, according to an analysis by NALEO Education Fund, a Latino political organization. The Indy says Latinos have more political power than ever in Nevada and are growing faster than the state's overall population.
Recent polls show that Harris is struggling to consolidate the overwhelming support she needs among Latinos to win in the state. According to a September Televisa/Univision poll, Harris has a lead over former President Donald Trump among likely voters (51% to 39%), but remains behind President Joe Biden in 2020 approval ratings. is taking.
The campaign is well aware of the importance of groups. Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) participated in a phone banking event with the Latino community on Tuesday, and President Trump spoke with Latinos in Henderson on Saturday with Rosen's Republican opponent, Sam Braun. We are planning to hold a roundtable. President Trump is also scheduled to hold a Univision-sponsored town hall in Miami next week.
And ahead of Thursday's town hall, the Democratic National Committee posted bilingual billboards and Spanish-language print ads throughout Las Vegas.
It's unclear what the electoral leanings of all 75 people in attendance were, but Mario Sigbaum, a 70-year-old immigrant from Uruguay, said he was leaning toward Mr. Trump. He said he was alarmed by Biden's decision to withdraw from the race earlier this year and by Harris' rapid rise to the nomination.
Harris acknowledged the situation could be “unprecedented” but said the stakes in the race remained the same.
“This is an extraordinary time for us Americans to choose between the rule of law and democracy, or to praise dictators and dictatorships,” she said.
immigration
Operations manager Yvette Castillo tearfully recalled the death of her mother just six weeks ago. Although her father was a citizen, her mother was not, which reduced the amount of care she received.
“She never received the kind of care and services that she deserved,” Casulho said, asking how Harris would ensure better health care for immigrants. .
In response, Harris referenced a bill the Biden administration introduced on its first day in office to expand pathways to citizenship, but the bill never got underway due to Republican opposition.
“If your mother had been able to become a citizen, she would have had the right to health care,” Harris said. “This is an example of the fact that there are real people who are suffering because politics cannot offer solutions.”
Harris also mentioned a bipartisan immigration bill that Republican senators rejected at President Trump's behest. The bill, which has faced pushback from immigration advocates, proposes that the U.S. stop accepting most asylum applications if the number of encounters with migrants reaches a certain threshold.
Jesús Auspro recalled how many of his college classmates were “Dreamers,” people who were brought to the United States illegally as children. He asked Harris how he would protect them.
“They had to live from day to day and carried that fear inside them,” Auspro said.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) was created by former President Barack Obama, and the Biden administration has sought to keep it alive amid years of legal battles. Their status is currently in flux, and Harris reiterated her support for creating a path to citizenship for DACA recipients.
As a 2019 presidential candidate, Harris supported using executive action to give DACA recipients a path to citizenship, but she has not repeated that position recently.
“One of the biggest problems with not having a comprehensive immigration plan is that we don't give immigrants a path to citizenship,” Harris said.
health care
Marta, who declined to give her last name, told the story of suffering a heart attack in 2020, being diagnosed with a long-term coronavirus infection shortly afterward, losing her job and becoming homeless. She applied for Social Security Disability Insurance three years ago, but says she still hasn't heard back.
“(I have) a low income, so I lost everything. I don't have health insurance. I can't get the treatment I need,” Marta said. “My question for you is: How do you help people with disabilities get insurance?”
Harris has long touted the Biden administration's efforts to include COVID-19 as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and although the details of the plan are unclear, it will affect millions of Americans. He shared his proposal to forgive medical debt.
Francisco Medina, a California native who was born in Mexico and works for the Department of Defense, recalled waiting two years to get the MRI scan he needed.
“The amount of time we have to wait… it's ridiculous,” Medina said.
Harris said she was “sorry it took so long” for Medina to receive treatment and would otherwise uphold the Affordable Care Act, increasing the monthly insulin price for Medicare recipients to $35 a month. He defended the Biden administration's efforts to lower the rate. The administration also supported putting a $2,000 annual cap on prescription drug costs for seniors, which Harris said she would like to expand to everyone.
“The job we have to do is understand that health care is a right,” Harris said. “It shouldn’t be the privilege of only those who have access.”
