Harris Seeks to Woo Hispanic Voters With Tougher Border Rhetoric

Happy Monday! Election Day is 36 days away. There was some confusion over the weekend surrounding a J.D. Vance campaign stop at a local sandwich chain near Pittsburgh. But we have a question for our Yinzer readers: Is Primanti’s all it’s cracked up to be?

Up to Speed

• Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who’s running for his state’s open Senate seat, said on CBS’ Face the Nation that he will not vote for former President Donald Trump, adding that neither he nor Vice President Kamala Harris deserved his vote. “I’ve said neither one of the two candidates has earned my vote, and the voters in the country are going to be able to make that decision,” he said. Pressed on whether there was a chance he would vote for Trump, he said, “I’m not going to.” Hogan, who said last year he would support Trump if he were the Republican nominee before walking the comments back, has leaned on his independent bona fides, while his opponent, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, has tried to highlight his history as a Republican. 
• Arizona Republican Jeff Flake, the former senator who was appointed U.S. ambassador to Turkey by President Joe Biden, endorsed Harris on Sunday. Flake served six terms in the House of Representatives, and then one term in the Senate, where he developed a reputation for being a stubborn, small-government budget hawk. But the GOP soured on Flake after he emerged as a major Trump critic. Flake retired from the Senate in 2018, fearing he would not be renominated in that year’s Arizona GOP primary.
• The Harris campaign announced Sunday that a pair of weekend fundraisers the vice president headlined in San Francisco and Los Angeles raised $55 million for her White House bid. Harris hauled in $27 million in San Francisco, where she once served as district attorney, and raked in $28 million in Los Angeles, where she lives with husband Doug Emhoff when not at the vice president’s residence in Washington, D.C.
• The Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, plans to spend $67.5 million in ad reservations across the three “blue wall” states, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The group will spend $28 million in Pennsylvania, $22.5 million in Michigan, and $17 million in Wisconsin. In addition to having competitive Senate races, the three states are also essential for Harris to win the presidency.

On Arizona Visit, Harris Doubles Down on Border Security

On Friday, as Kamala Harris traveled to Douglas, Arizona, to tour the southern border and announce a planned crackdown on illegal immigration with proposals that amounted to a break with President Joe Biden, Dispatch Politics received no fewer than half a dozen press releases from Donald Trump.

“Kamala thinks you’re stupid,” read one such missive, attempting to undercut the vice president’s bid to shrink the Republican nominee’s advantage with voters on this crucial issue. “Grieving parents blame Harris border policies for deaths of children, demand response,” read another, highlighting a Trump campaign conference call featuring parents whose children were killed by illegal immigrants. “Data reveals tens of thousands of illegal immigrants with sexual assault, homicide convictions roaming U.S. streets,” read yet another (the Harris campaign points to a CNN fact check disputing this).

Trump continued the full court press on border security in speeches to supporters at campaign rallies and other events over the weekend. The former president’s intensified focus on the issue, a key priority for voters in public opinion polls, shows just how critical his campaign views the edge he has maintained over Harris—and Biden before her—on border security. As a fresh NBC News/Telemundo/CNBC survey of Hispanic voters shows, it’s even helped with this critical cohort.

The Trump campaign’s aggressive, sometimes frenzied, response also revealed at least a hint of concern that Harris might erode, significantly, the Republican nominee’s upper hand on what has been his  signature issue since first running for president in 2016.

“Kamala Harris can never be forgiven for her erasing our border, and she must never be allowed to become president of the United States,” Trump said Saturday during a campaign rally in Wisconsin. “She’s letting in people who are going to walk into your house, break into your door.” (These remarks, flagged by the Trump campaign in a press release, are not exactly accurate in that Harris’ boss, the president, calls the shots on immigration policy—as is the case in every administration.)

Biden has been demonstrably weaker on border enforcement than Trump, at least until recently, when the president belatedly took executive action to choke off illegal crossings and reduce the gaming of the federal asylum system. (Republicans argue the steps taken were insufficient to address the problem.) Harris’ role in Biden’s uneven management of the U.S.-Mexico border has dogged perceptions of her as a leader, both before and since late July, when Biden withdrew as the Democratic nominee. 

But Harris has one weapon in her arsenal that she has used like a cudgel: Trump’s opposition earlier this year to a bipartisan border security bill negotiated among Democrats and Republicans in the Senate that Biden was prepared to sign into law. 

The former president almost single-handedly killed the legislation, saying he preferred to run on the issue than allow Biden to claim a policy victory. From the beginning of Harris’ 2024 campaign, she has—rather than run from her political vulnerability on illegal immigration—attacked Trump, seeking to keep the Republican nominee on his heels and close the gap with voters on which candidate would better secure the border. In that context, Harris’ decision to visit the U.S.-Mexico border in battleground Arizona is hardly surprising. 

Harris dropped by the Raul Hector Castro Land Port of Entry in Douglas, Arizona, approximately 240 miles southeast of Phoenix. Per a White House official, the vice president was briefed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection officials, with an emphasis on federal efforts to interdict fentanyl trafficking. Joining her for the closed-press meetings were Arizona’s Democratic senator, Mark Kelly, and the state’s Democratic attorney general, Kris Mayes. 

But it’s what Harris said afterward, during a campaign rally at a local junior college, that mattered much more than her not-so-insignificant border wall photo-op. 

“The United States is a sovereign nation and I believe we have a duty to set rules at our border and to enforce them,” the vice president said. “As president, I won’t just bring back the border security bill that Donald Trump tanked. I will do more to secure our border.

“To reduce illegal border crossings,” Harris continued, “I will take further action to keep the border closed between ports of entry. Those who cross our borders unlawfully will be apprehended and removed and barred from reentering for five years. We will pursue more severe criminal charges against repeat violators. And if someone does not make an asylum request at a legal port of entry, and instead crosses our border unlawfully, they will be barred from receiving asylum.”

Mike Madrid, a Republican operative who opposes Trump and specializes in the Hispanic vote, said Harris’ rhetoric in this speech is exactly what she needs to do to improve her standing with Hispanic voters. That might seem counterintuitive to some political observers. But polling data from NBC News/Telemundo/CNBC suggests Madrid is correct. In the survey of Hispanic voters, Trump leads Harris on “securing the border and controlling immigration” by 13 percentage points—47 percent to 34 percent.

“Kamala Harris is on the right path,” Madrid wrote in a detailed analysis of the vice president’s speech published in his Substack newsletter.

In Michigan, Trump’s Off-Script Riffs Fire Up Crowds More Than Inflation Talking Points

WALKER, Michigan—The crowd cheered as Donald Trump walked onto the stage Friday afternoon for a rally here at a production plant just outside of Grand Rapids. Flanked by groups of workers in hard hats standing below banners that read, “MADE IN THE USA!” and, “JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!” the former president began to speak about … immigration.

“On November 5, Kamala Harris will be held accountable for these crimes. She will be sent back to California. And we will close the border. We will stop the invasion. We will begin the largest deportation operation in American history,” Trump said to raucous applause.

Trump’s campaign had advertised the event to media as an address on inflation, and the bulk of his remarks stuck closer to the promised theme. But the extended riff on immigration at the beginning of the speech really jazzed up the crowd.

After the 20-minute opening tangent, Trump moved on to the subject that made up most of his 70-minute remarks: bringing manufacturing jobs to Michigan and the rest of the country. The crowd approved of that message, but attendees were on the whole more enthused when he promised measures related to border security. Otherwise, the biggest applause came when he promised to “keep critical race theory and transgender insanity out of our schools.”

When asked what especially stuck out to them about the speech, few attendees who spoke to Dispatch Politics mentioned the section about jobs and manufacturing. Attendees brought up several topics, including those related to the culture war. “Women fought so hard to get the respect and endurance in sports where it is right now,” Carolyn Brussow, a 60-year-old retired teacher said. She added that having transgender athletes competing against women is “extremely wrong on all levels.”

Polling indicates the economy is the No. 1 issue for voters in this election, including for Trump supporters. But while several people at the rally said economic concerns will drive them to vote for Trump in November, the enthusiastic response when Trump touched on other topics demonstrates that after three nominations, the former president still knows what red meat to throw out to his most committed supporters.

“I’d like a closed border so we can stop fentanyl and drugs and child trafficking, things like that. That’s important,” 20-year-old Joshua Kuzmitsky, who works for the water department in nearby Grand Rapids, told Dispatch Politics before adding that economic issues also motivate him. Ross Holst, a 46-year-old automotive paint salesman, first mentioned that he was particularly concerned about inflation, but he then used much stronger language: “immigration is totally f—ed up.”

Other rallygoers brought up safety and security for children as reasons for supporting Trump. “I’m raising young daughters in this world, man, and we need a little bit more conservative back in the country,” said Billy Sanderson, a contractor who came to the rally on his 38th birthday and cited “parents’ rights” as one of his top issues. Suzanne Bellows, 74,  was attending her 17th Trump rally, and she said children were her main issue. “We’ve got to keep them safe, and they’re our future.”

Before Trump took the stage, independent-candidate-turned-Trump-supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. addressed the crowd, arguing that “the Democratic Party that I grew up with, the Democratic Party of John F. Kennedy, of Robert Kennedy, does not exist today,” referencing his uncle and father, respectively. “The Democrats are trying to say that Donald Trump hates democracy, that he wants to be a dictator, but they’re all advocating now—openly advocating—the censorship of our speech.”

That was a big issue for 42-year-old social worker Laura Smith. She expressed a fondness for former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, another former Democrat who switched to backing Trump, and said she recently became a Trump supporter after previously voting for Democrats. “I think that Trump’s policies and other adjacent—like RFK and Tulsi—policies are a lot more in line with just, like, liberty and people having the freedom of the lives they want to live,” she said.

Sunday Show Rewind

• House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota on ABC’s This Week provided some details about playing his state’s governor, Tim Walz, in debate prep with Sen. J.D. Vance ahead of Tuesday’s vice presidential debate. “I’ve known Tim, oh, probably since he was first elected almost 20 years ago, and I worked with him directly for four years,” Emmer told anchor Martha Raddatz. “I spent the last month just going back all of his old stuff to get his phrases down, his mannerisms, that sort of thing. My job was to be able to play Tim Walz so J.D. Vance knows what he’s going to see.”
• Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois defended Kamala Harris for changing her position on immigration from advocating decriminalizing illegal border crossings during her 2020 presidential run to supporting much tougher border security policies. “Remember there’s been massive migration all throughout the world, people literally moving from one country to another, and that began to increase significantly over the last four years,” he told Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union. “So, it’s natural, of course, that you adapt your policies to meet the moment.”
• Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama appeared on Fox News Sunday, where anchor Shannon Bream noted that Harris’ lead over Trump in neighboring Georgia in the network’s latest poll is due, in part, to women “not trust[ing] you guys” on protecting both abortion and in vitro fertilization. “There’s been no stronger supporter of IVF than President Trump,” Britt said, pointing to Trump’s expressed support for protecting the procedure. Pressed about why she and nearly every other Republican senator voted against a recent bill to protect access to IVF, Britt argued that the “show vote” did not extend specific protections for religious freedom and against human cloning that the GOP sought in its own bill.
• Stanley McChrystal, the retired four-star Army general, spoke on Face the Nation about his decision to endorse Harris for president last week, four years after endorsing Joe Biden. He repeatedly cited the Democratic nominee’s “character” and said her experience in public life has shown she has the “core values” to be president. When asked by CBS News anchor Robert Costa about Harris’ role in the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan—where he had been commander of the international security forces from 2009 to 2010, McChrystal said the situation there was “difficult” and suggested the Trump administration’s actions tied Biden’s hands there. “I didn’t like the outcome in Afghanistan. I put a lot of my life there. And the young Americans who gave so much of themselves, I don’t think did it in vain. I think they did it in a worthy effort that made Afghanistan a better place. But things don’t always turn out like we hope they will,” McChrystal said.

Eyes on the Trail

• President Joe Biden this morning delivered remarks at the White House on federal response efforts to Hurricane Helene. The White House announced that additional scheduling details for the president would be forthcoming. Biden said he plans to visit the hurricane-ravaged southeast Wednesday or Thursday.
• Vice President Kamala Harris this evening will visit Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., for a briefing on the “ongoing impacts of Hurricane Helene and the Federal actions being taken to support emergency response and recovery efforts across several states.” Harris plans to visit affected states in coming days, per her office. (Harris’ office also said in a press release that the vice president canceled previously scheduled campaign events and instead headed to Washington this morning, from Las Vegas, where she hosted a rally Sunday evening.)
• Former President Donald Trump heads to Valdosta, Georgia, today to deliver remarks and what his campaign says will be a briefing on the damage from Hurricane Helene. There, he will “facilitate the distribution of relief supplies.”
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. travels to Philadelphia today for a Trump campaign “Make America Healthy Again” event, where he will be joined by television personality Dr. Phil McGraw. Kennedy, a former Democrat, waged an independent presidential bid before dropping out and endorsing Trump.
• The Trump campaign on Monday was scheduled to conclude a three-day bus tour across Michigan, with stops in Bloomfield Hills, New Hudson, and Plymouth. Headliners include Corey Lewandowski and Donald Trump Jr. 

Notable and Quotable

“I’m not saying she’s crazy. I’m saying [Harris’] policies are batsh— crazy.”

—South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham on CNN’s State of the Union in response to questions about former President Donald Trump calling Vice President Kamala Harris “mentally impaired” at a weekend rally, September 29, 2024