In Pennsylvania’s largest city, which is majority Latino, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff told voters and volunteers that Vice President Kamala Harris would provide further opportunity and prosperity for families looking to start businesses and build wealth for generations to come if she is elected president.
“This is about creating an opportunity economy where all of us, every single one of us, can succeed,” Emhoff said Saturday in Allentown, where he visited the Harris-Walz campaign field office to kick off a door-knocking campaign in the neighborhood and a city high school to address a rally.
With Pennsylvania’s 579,000 eligible Latino voters potentially influencing the election in a state that has narrowly decided the last two presidential elections, Harris-Walz’s campaign and former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, are trying to reach them.
Latinos, who make up more than half the population of Allentown, Pennsylvania’s third-largest city, lag behind several other demographic groups in essential economic indicators, according to voter profile released this week by the UCLA Institute for Latino Policy and Politics.
AND survey published this week Latino voters are concerned about the high cost of living, the minimum wage and rising housing costs ahead of the November election, according to a report by UnidosUS, the nation’s largest civil rights and Hispanic rights organization.
Emhoff told voters in Allentown that Harris would lower costs and grow the middle class through education and support for families and miniature businesses.
“She’s the foundation of any great economy. She’s a capitalist. She’s pro-growth. She’s pro-business, but she’s also pro-work and pro-market. All of those things can exist at the same time,” Emhoff told the crowd, estimated at more than 400 people campaigning in the gymnasium at Dieruff High School on Allentown’s east side.
Allentown School Board Chairwoman Andrene Brown-Nowell told the Capital-Star before the rally that the Latino community is curious to see how the presidential candidates plan to support their children’s education.
“How do we make sure they have all the resources they need … to fill the workforce and be prepared for the workforce,” Brown-Nowell said. “It’s really important that our Latino community is supported because they’re currently a minority, but they’re preparing to be a majority.”
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona told the crowd that he was the proud grandson of Puerto Rican farmers who told him, “Para tener buena cosecha, hay que saben siembra. To have a good harvest, you have to know how to plant seeds, right?”
“Planting seeds for the next generation is what the Harris-Walz ticket is all about. Planting seeds for a brighter future for our children with access to education, health care and affordable housing,” Cardona said.
Some who listened to Emhoff told the Capital-Star they supported Harris because they believed she and her vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, would protect the interests of the working class, minorities and immigrants.
“The most important thing for us is also the opportunity to build generational wealth,” said Jose Merced of Bethlehem. “Other people have had that opportunity and we would like that opportunity for our children as well, you know, so we can move forward and grow and have a better life.”
Merced said that lend a hand for families, such as Harris’ proposals for pandemic-era recovery child tax relief and lend a hand first time home buyer made the greatest impression on him.
“Once they invest in real estate, in a home, it can be theirs and their children can own it in the future, and that’s how they build wealth that’s passed down through the generations, because that’s how America was built,” Merced said.
Maria Cruz of Northampton said she came to the rally to hear speakers reaffirm Harris-Walz’s campaign promise of a “new way forward.” Cruz, who immigrated to the United States from Mexico with her mother when she was 8, said she believes everything she worked for by becoming a citizen is at stake in this year’s election.
“The first thing I did when I became a citizen was register to vote because sometimes people don’t understand what it takes to be a citizen, and I think Trump doesn’t understand that,” Cruz said. “So we’re fighting back and we don’t want to bring that back to the White House.”
Before the rally, Emhoff visited the Harris-Walz campaign office in downtown Allentown, where he and the U.S. congressman Adriano Espaillat (DN.Y.) delivered snacks to volunteers at Mary Ann Donut Kitchen, a 65-year-old Allentown establishment.
Espaillat, the first Dominican-American and first formerly undocumented immigrant to serve in Congress, spoke of the threat a second Trump presidency poses not only to the United States but also to its standing in the world.
Even as Trump has tried to distance himself, Democrats and civil rights advocates have issued dire warnings about the conservative presidential transition plan, titled “Project 2025,” amid plans to dismantle the pillars of American society US Department of Education closure.
“People all over the world understand and know that the great equalizer in the United States is the public education system,” Espallit said. “It doesn’t matter where you come from, what language you speak, who you pray to, whether you’re middle class or working class.”
Espallit asked volunteers not to dismiss as rhetoric the statement that this year’s presidential election is the most essential in decades.
“No, it’s really not just for our country, but for the world,” he said. “The whole world is watching what happens in this election.”
