Harris is courting Black and Latino votes as polls suggest Trump is gaining

With just weeks left until the US presidential election, Kamala Harris is stepping up her efforts to court black and Latino voters. Despite a clear advantage in both groups, some Democrats warned they needed to do more to galvanize voters to support her in November.

That's partly due to recent polls that suggest Harris' Republican rival, Donald Trump, is succeeding in winning over Black and Latino voters, a continuation of the gains he made in 2016 and 2020.

The New York Times-Siena poll found Harris had 78% support among black voters, compared with about 90% support for Democrats in the last election, with most of that decline among men.

This could prove crucial in a race that will likely be decided by a razor-thin lead. And even if this poll is excluded, in key battleground states, modest gains among black or Latino voters could ultimately influence the outcome.

In Arizona, for example, almost one in four November 5 voters are expected to be Latino, and in nearby Nevada, almost 20%. In another key state, Georgia, black voters make up about 30% of the total electorate. This is a significant number of votes in seriously important countries.

So what might be driving Trump's apparent gains among these voters?

The economy, especially inflation and the cost of living, is the most important issue for most voters.

The same is true for many black and Latino voters, with the New York Times suggesting that large majorities of both groups are dissatisfied with the current state of the US economy.

Among them is Quenton Jordan, a 30-year-old Virginia resident who once voted for Barack Obama but has been voting for Trump since he first entered the national political scene in 2016.

“Inflation has made it largely impossible or extremely difficult for people to provide their families with basic necessities,” Jordan said.

“It's the tangible things that make people say they don't like the pressure I'm putting on commodity prices. This makes my life difficult,” he added.

Across the country, in notoriously “purple” Nevada, home to a large Latino population, Las Vegas resident Lydia Dominguez said many Latinos “remember the economy under Trump,” adding that economic concerns mean there is “no stigma anymore ” in terms of supporting the former president.

“They can't afford to live. That's a really big part of it,” she told the BBC. “Supporting him is no longer a taboo.”

Even some Harris-leaning voters admit that “pocket” issues have helped shift voters in their community to the right.

“In my community, many people are changing their position. A lot of people will vote for Trump, purely for economic reasons,” said Diego Arancivia, a former Republican Party voter in Nevada who is currently voting for Harris.

“They would never want to go out for a beer with him, but they think he has the tools to lift them up economically.”

Echoing the sentiments of the broader U.S. electorate, both black and Latino voters expressed concern about immigration and the Biden administration's treatment of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Strong border controls and a commitment to deport millions of undocumented migrants are a central part of Trump's campaign agenda.

The campaign also found an enthusiastic audience among some Black and Latino voters who say they see the border as chaotic and dangerous under the Biden administration and, by extension, under Harris.

Rolando Rodriguez, a Trump supporter and former Texas Democrat, said the daily realities of record numbers of migrant crossings in recent years are firmly on the minds of some voters, even if the numbers have declined this year.

“I live so close to the border and I have never witnessed a disaster like what we have seen under Kamala and Biden,” he said.

Similarly, Jordan, a black voter from Virginia, said he believed asylum seekers and other foreign nationals were “drawing resources that the black community has been asking for for decades.”

Trump addressed the issue directly on Monday, referring to the “invasion” of illegal immigrants that is having a “tremendous negative impact” on Black and Latino communities.

Political science professor Quadricos Driskel said black male voters in particular have turned away from what some see as the democratic “adoption” of social programs that conflict with their own views.

“There is a belief that there has been an attack on masculinity and what that means,” he said. “I think that's what some black male voters are opposed to.”

“It's not necessarily about the party itself,” he added. “It's more about voters in the party and the vocabulary around human sexuality and gender.”

Driskell's assessment is shared by 49-year-old black South Carolina voter Clarence Pauling.

Pauling, a barbershop owner and former police officer, said the Republican Party's views are more aligned with his own religious values ​​on gender and sexuality.

“You can't create your own agenda,” he said of Democrats. “(If) you're going to lead the whole country, you should lead it in the right direction.”

On Monday, as Trump courted Black and Latino voters at a town hall event in Pennsylvania, Harris stepped up her efforts by releasing a list of policy proposals that her campaign called a “Black Men's Opportunity Agenda.”

This week, he will also meet with Black entrepreneurs in cities in key swing states and speak with popular Black media figures, including radio host Charlamagne Tha God at an event in Detroit.

Meanwhile, Trump made a direct reference to recent polls. “Our poll numbers have skyrocketed, with Black and Latino (voters), they have skyrocketed,” he said. “And I like it.”