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Latino Voters Are Key. California Sen. Padilla Wants to Steer Them Away From Trump

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Sen. Alex Padilla speaks at Mexican Heritage Plaza in San José during the 'Fight for Reproductive Freedoms' tour on Jan. 29, 2024. With Election Day less than two weeks away, Sen. Padilla is hitting key swing states to make the case for Vice President Kamala Harris to Latino voters. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)

With less than two weeks left until Election Day, California’s Sen. Alex Padilla is hitting the campaign trail in key swing states to make the Democrats’ case to Latino voters, who will be crucial in deciding the tight presidential race.

Recent polling shows Vice President Kamala Harris with less support from Latinos, specifically men, than President Joe Biden received in 2020. But Padilla, who became California’s first Latino senator after succeeding Harris when she became vice president, said the case for her presidency is clear.

“There are plans for investing in the middle class, making it easier for people to achieve the American dream, better-paying jobs, access to health care, investments in education, everything that Latinos want for their families to be able to get ahead,” he told KQED. “The contrast — what we hear from Donald Trump and Republicans — continues to be vindictiveness, bitterness, attacks, anger.”

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Padilla has visited Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania in the last two weeks and plans to hit more swing states in the home stretch. He said that Latino voters, 59% of whom cast their votes for Biden in 2020, according to a Pew analysis of validated voters, should not be taken for granted.

Both the Harris and Trump campaigns have been ramping up outreach to Latino voters, and while Harris still leads in the demographic, some polls have shown her underperforming compared to recent Democratic presidential campaigns.

In conversations with potential Trump voters in the swing states, Padilla said he’s been trying to challenge perceptions of the former president, whom he said many have described as a “strong personality” who will make a “firm, strong leader.”

“When you stop and say, ‘Well, it may come across that way, but what is he actually saying?’ When you dissect what his positions are, his proposals are, that’s not going to benefit our community,” Padilla said.

He pointed to the Biden administration’s bipartisan infrastructure plan, as well as Harris’ focus on inflation and the rising cost of housing. Padilla is also leaning into discussions about reproductive rights with Latino men.

“For men, having a conversation about how to respect our spouses and defend our daughters’ rights into the future — the contrast couldn’t be clearer,” he said.

Immigration is also top of mind. Padilla said escalating rhetoric from Trump and Republican candidates down the ballot has had real consequences for Latinos in the U.S.

He pointed to the 2019 mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, by a man who was targeting Latinos and wrote an anti-immigration manifesto echoing Trump’s rhetoric — “the type of language that he used, the type of anger he demonstrated when he was in office,” Padilla said.

“As a Latino father of three school-aged children, I can’t help but take that personally,” he said. “I know the consequences of the type of rhetoric Donald Trump is using.”

Kamala Harris leads among likely Latino voters in Arizona and Pennsylvania, according to a GQR poll for Voto Latino, but is losing ground in Nevada. Sen. Alex Padilla stressed the importance of tailoring political strategies to each state’s local concerns. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

The presidential race for president remains tight, and while Harris leads in polling of likely Latino voters in Arizona and Pennsylvania, according to a poll conducted by GQR for the nonprofit Voto Latino, she is losing ground in Nevada.

Padilla said visiting these states is important because politics is local, and appealing to voters varies between the states.

“Latinos are open in large part due to the disinformation that is coming from Donald Trump and his Republican support base and allies,” Padilla told KQED. “It’s been even more imperative for Democrats to get out there and communicate with the voters, answer questions, lay out the plans, lay out the specifics, and make the contrast as clear as it is for anybody who’s paying attention.”

KQED’s Natalia Navarro contributed to this report.

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