■ Kamala Harris visited Puerto Rico as vice president for the first time.
Vice president touts hurricane relief funds
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Vice President Kamala Harris visited Puerto Rico on Friday as part of a whirlwind trip to tout federal aid the U.S. territory has received following deadly hurricanes and attend a Democratic fundraiser.
Her visit comes days after President Joe Biden launched a campaign targeting Latino voters ahead of the November general elections. While those in Puerto Rico cannot vote in U.S. presidential elections despite being U.S. citizens, more than 5 million Puerto Ricans live in the U.S. mainland.
Accompanying Harris for the roughly five-hour visit to the island was Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Department of Housing and Urban Development Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman. Welcoming them was Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, a Democrat whose New Progressive Party has long pushed for statehood.
Harris’ first stop was to visit a new home in the northern municipality of Canovanas, located near the capital. It had been destroyed after Hurricane Maria hit the island in September 2017 as a powerful Category 4 storm, killing nearly 3,000 people in its aftermath.
En route, the motorcade passed people holding their phones up as it went by. Some onlookers leaned out of their cars to take photos as they waited for the motorcade to pass, while others stood outside businesses and homes as the motorcade continued. One girl held a sign imploring help to fix their home.
“I see we are making a difference. There is still more work to do,” Harris said.
Harris said one of the ongoing challenges Puerto Rico faces is intermittent energy sources, with outages still occurring daily since Maria razed the power grid. She noted that the federal government has provided some $3 billion in reliable energy sources, including rooftop solar panels. It also shipped mega generators last year to minimize outages.