MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are reaching out to voters in the Southwest today. They're in the swing states of Nevada and Arizona. We are joined by NPR's Ben Giles, who's in Phoenix, Arizona. Hi there, Ben.
BEN GILES, BYLINE: Hello.
KELLY: And KUNR's Lucia Starbuck in Reno, Nevada. Hi to you.
LUCIA STARBUCK, BYLINE: Hi. Thanks for having me.
KELLY: Hey. I can hear that you're somewhere noisy. So, Lucia, you kick us off there in Nevada. This is the first time, I am told, Harris has been in Reno this year. How big a deal's the visit?
STARBUCK: Yes. I'm right outside the rally. It's a really big deal. She hasn't been to Reno since 2023 in her vice presidential capacity. She's been to Las Vegas several times since becoming the Democratic presidential candidate, and she'll be in Vegas again today. But in northern Nevada, which is more rural compared to Vegas, voters tell me they sometimes feel forgotten. Sondra Cosgrove, a history professor at the College of Southern Nevada, says these campaign visits matter.
SONDRA COSGROVE: For the community, it tells them the value of their vote. So presidential campaigns have a ton of money to be able to advertise and send mailers and text messages. But if that's not working and they're really having to count individual votes, they're going to show up and talk to you.
STARBUCK: Cosgrove said campaign visits are enough to convince people who might have sat out this election to vote.
KELLY: And, Ben, let me turn us to Arizona because if you were wondering about its importance in this campaign, we can point out that both major candidates have been there a lot as well. What are the closing arguments you're hearing?
GILES: They sure have, and the Trump campaign here has been pretty consistently focused on Arizona's economy. They talk a lot about the cost of living, particularly the cost of housing and how much it's gone up. And that is top of mind for many voters here. Trump will argue the economy is worse under the Biden-Harris administration than under his four years ago. And they've also sought to tie the economy to immigration. They've done that by blaming migrants as added competition contributing to the high demand of housing. Economists who've studied this question say immigrants do have a minimal impact on housing costs - that is, if supply can't keep up with demand - but, again, minimal.
STARBUCK: I'm hearing the same thing from voters in Nevada that are struggling with the high cost of living. They want to hear from both Harris and Trump on how they'll fix it, especially those working in the service industry.
KELLY: OK. Let me turn you both to some comments that have made a lot of noise, a lot of headlines in the last few days of this campaign. These are the ones from a comedian speaking before a Trump rally in New York, comparing Puerto Rico to a floating island of garbage. Given that the Southwest has a sizable Latino population, I'm curious what you're hearing from people in these two states - Lucia, first Nevada.
STARBUCK: Yeah. My colleague Maria Palma - she spoke to Raymond De Leon Perez, a Reno resident of Puerto Rican descent who said it's motivating him to encourage others to vote.
RAYMOND DE LEON PEREZ: Horrible, honestly. It make me feel bad for my kids, for my wife, for my family, for my Puerto Rican people but also gave me strength to go outside and knock doors day by day and make people understand why Kamala Harris is our best choice in this next elections.
STARBUCK: Since those comments, Trump has said he has a lot of love from Latino communities.
KELLY: Ben, how about in Arizona?
GILES: Yeah. It's certainly something the Harris campaign has sought to seize on here as well. The chair of the state Democratic Party earlier this week was doing interviews on Spanish-language radio channels, slamming that floating island of garbage comment made by a comedian about Puerto Rico.
KELLY: Although Democrats are having to do damage control on this as well. President Biden made comments sounding like he was calling Trump supporters garbage.
STARBUCK: Yeah. I checked in with a couple Republican voters in Nevada, including Paula Loop (ph), an immigrant from Argentina.
PAULA LOOP: He is my president, and he thinks I am garbage. Yeah, that definitely make me feel bad. And I cared about what he said and how he said it.
STARBUCK: She compared it to Hillary Clinton's deplorable comment she made when she was running for president in 2016. Biden has since tried to clarify his remarks, saying he was talking about the comedian at the rally, not Trump supporters.
KELLY: One more issue to ask you about, and that is abortion. Ben, in Arizona, abortion's on the ballot. Polls show this measure is likely to pass. How could that impact the race?
GILES: Well, Democrats certainly think it's an issue that could play into the presidential election here. As part of their last week on the campaign trail, the Harris campaign launched a reproductive rights freedom bus tour throughout Arizona, featuring guests like former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Democrats up and down the ballot, not just Harris, are hoping that the same people who are turning out to vote in support of a constitutional amendment to protect the right to an abortion in Arizona - that'd be up to about 24 weeks - they're hoping they'll also remember what Trump did to put the state in this situation.
KELLY: And, Lucia, just a few seconds left, but abortion's also on the ballot there in Nevada.
STARBUCK: Yeah. The stakes are not as high. There's a ballot question to make it a constitutional right to have an abortion. If it doesn't pass, abortions are still protected under state law up to 24 weeks, but Democratic candidates are still making it a main campaign issue, and it's definitely on the minds of a lot of voters as well.
KELLY: That is KUNR's Lucia Starbuck in Reno and NPR's Ben Giles in Phoenix. Thanks to you both.
STARBUCK: Thanks for having us.
GILES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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