Kamala Harris, Donald Trump vie for Latino vote as polls show dead heat race

Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump were both vying for the Latino vote on Tuesday with polls showing the race in a dead heat.

Trump addressed a Latino-focused event at his resort in Doral, Florida, while Harris was set to do an interview with Spanish-language TV network Telemundo.

“Under my presidency, we had more jobs and more productivity,” Trump said, deriding Harris as “lazy as hell” and “low IQ.” “We had the best numbers.”

Trump was set to jet later back to North Carolina for a rally in Greenville. It’s his second day in a row campaigning in the Tarheel State, a potential sign of weakness for the Republican since he carried the state in both of the last elections.

In the Telemundo interview she’s taping Tuesday in Washington, Harris is set to discuss how her plan for a so-called opportunity economy will lower costs, increase their chances for homeownership and expand job opportunities for Latinos.

The veep will also sit down with NBC News anchor Hallie Jackson for an interview set to air Tuesday night.

For Harris, the appearances are the latest in a weeks-long media blitz while Trump mostly sticks to friendly right-wing outlets.

The Democratic nominee will appear at a CNN town hall on Wednesday, an event that was originally earmarked for a debate with Trump. But he refused to debate a second time after viewers said Harris won their first and only clash on Sept. 10.

Overall, polls say the race remains a toss up with Election Day less than two weeks away and millions already casting votes early.

Trump supporters say polls are moving narrowly towards him in the past couple of weeks. But the Harris campaign points to polls showing that late-deciding voters are breaking for her.

Pennsylvania is arguably the hardest fought of the battleground states and happens to have one of the fastest-growing Hispanic communities in the country.

It’s fertile ground for both Democrats and Republicans to test their strength among Latinos in a state where small margins decide who gets 19 electoral votes.

“This is the epicenter for Latino voters in Pennsylvania,” said Victor Martinez, a radio host who is of Puerto Rican descent and lives in and broadcasts his show from Allentown. “I like it, because that means that they have to pay attention to us.”

Pennsylvania’s Latino eligible voter population has more than doubled since 2000 from 208,000 to 579,000, according to the Latino Data Hub from the University of California, Los Angeles’ Latino Policy & Politics Institute. The population in cities like Allentown and Reading is now more than half Hispanic, with a majority being of Puerto Rican descent and a sizable portion of Dominican origin.

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