Harris coming to Texas to court cooling Hispanic voters
Just days after President Joe Biden’s campaign officially filed to be on the ballot in Texas next year, the White House is dispatching Vice President Kamala Harris to Texas on Monday to court Hispanic voters.
Harris is scheduled to attend an event in U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia’s district to outline how the administration’s agenda is helping the Hispanic community at a time when polls show those voters cooling on Biden.
“This visit emphasizes the importance of recognizing and addressing the specific needs of the Latino population,” said Garcia, a Democrat who has represented Houston’s East End since 2018.
More than 75% of Garcia’s district is made up of Hispanic residents.
The visit is part of a broader, nationwide initiative that has White House officials and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus touring the nation to highlight their accomplishments with Hispanic voters. Recent stops in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico focused on veterans programs, first-time homebuyer initiatives and infrastructure spending under Biden and Harris. The event in Houston is expected to highlight health care programs, according to a news release put out by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
“These events serve as a platform to connect with our communities, to listen to their concerns, and to let them know about the tools and resources available for success,” said U.S. Rep. Nanette Barragán, a California Democrat who is chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and will be part of Harris’ visit to Houston.
The White House has not confirmed where and when the event will be in Houston, but the stops are typically invitation-only and not open to the general public.
Harris is no stranger to the Houston region. Besides making several appearances in Houston during the 2020 Democratic primary election, Harris last year attended the National Baptist Convention and held an event at the NASA Johnson Space Center.
Harris also is expected to attend a campaign event with Garcia, who along with Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is part of a national advisory committee for the Biden-harris reelection campaign.
The Texas visit comes as Biden’s polling numbers are dipping among all Democrats, but particularly with Hispanic voters who helped propel his 2020 win over former President Donald Trump.
According to exit polls for the 2020 election, Biden carried 70% of Hispanic voters nationwide. Many public polls this year show roughly 60% of Hispanic voters would support Biden in a potential rematch against Trump in 2024.
In a Quinnipiac University poll of 1,574 people completed earlier this month, just 48% of Hispanic voters said they would vote for Biden over Trump. While it was 6 percentage points higher than Trump’s percentage, it is far from the more than 40 percentage point advantage he held in 2020 over Trump.
Trump meanwhile has made two campaign stops in Texas over the last four weeks, including a stop in Houston to promote oil industry jobs and one near Mcallen where he advocated tougher border policies and took jabs directly at Harris.
Trump said Harris and Biden are ignoring the border and haven’t seen the problems their policies have caused up close in Texas.
“They are not doing their job,” Trump said on Sunday with Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, by his side. The two were in Hidalgo County, which went for Biden in the 2020 elections. But Trump made big inroads in that election cycle with the county’s predominantly Hispanic population. In 2016, Trump won just 28% of the vote against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Four years later, he won 41% of the vote against Biden.
Trump also won smaller counties along the Texas border like Zapata County, which hadn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate over a Democrat since the 1920s.
While the presidential primary season still has a long way to go, Trump and Biden appear to be on a collision course. On Nov. 17, Trump officially filed to be on the Texas Republican primary ballot. On Wednesday, Biden’s campaign filed papers for him to be on the state’s Democratic primary ballot. The Texas primary is on March 5.