Updated October 31, 2024 at 22:56 PM ET
PHOENIX — The presidential campaign headed west on Thursday with Vice President Harris and former President Donald Trump taking their closing arguments to voters in the critical swing states of Arizona and Nevada.
With five days to go until voting closes on Election Day, the candidates are looking to win over Latino voters in the two states — and talk about border security, one of the biggest issues for the campaign.
In Arizona, Harris set out to make a pitch to the large number of independents in the state. She was was met at the airport by former Sen. Jeff Flake and Mayor John Giles of Mesa — both of whom are Republicans who have endorsed her.
Speaking in Phoenix, Harris criticized remarks made by Trump at a rally on Wednesday that he would protect women "whether the women like it or not." She framed the comment as a preview of the damage a second Trump presidency could mean for women.
"He does not believe women should have the agency and authority to make decisions about their own bodies," Harris said. "He simply does not respect the freedom of women or the intelligence of women to know what’s in their own best interest and make decision accordingly," she added. "But we trust women.”
The race between Harris and Trump is shaping up to have a potentially historic gender gap, with a significant share of women supporting Harris, while Trump appears to be performing better with men.
Harris also used the Phoenix rally to draw a contrast between herself and Trump when it comes to issues affecting the state's Latino population. The Mexican regional band Los Tigres del Norte warmed up the crowd before Harris took the stage, and at one point in her address she led the audience in a chant of "Si se puede," or "Yes you can."
"He insults Latinos, scapegoats immigrants -- and it's not just what he says, it's what he will do," Harris said of her Republican opponent. "If elected, you can be sure he will bring back family separation policies, only on a much greater scale than last time."
Trump will be in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale later on Thursday speaking at an event with Tucker Carlson, the conservative commentator known for stirring controversy.
Arizona — which Trump lost by less than 11,000 votes in 2020 — remains one of the most closely contested states in this year’s election. Republicans are hoping a ballot measure that would make illegal border crossings a state crime will help motivate support for Trump, while Democrats have sought to mobilize voters around a ballot measure that would enshrine the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution.
"So Arizona, to protect your right to make your own health care decisions, I would recommend you vote Yes on Proposition 139," Harris said in reference to the abortion measure.
The race in Nevada
With their stops in Nevada, home to a large population of service industry workers, both candidates were returning to a state where they have touted plans to eliminate taxes on tips for hourly workers.
Trump was in the city of Henderson, just outside of Las Vegas. Harris was in Reno before traveling to Las Vegas, where she was set to appear alongside pop icon Jennifer Lopez and Maná, a Mexican pop rock band.
In Nevada, Latinos make up just over one in five eligible voters, while in Arizona they represent 25% of the eligible voter population, according to the Pew Research Center. Democrats have traditionally won significant shares of the demographic, but polling has shown the Republican nominee chipping away at that advantage.
The Sun Belt dash comes as both candidates continue to navigate the fallout from a comedian’s crude joke referring to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden in New York last weekend.
The remark initially brought a wave of backlash against Trump, but by Wednesday Harris was cleaning up comments made by President Biden during a video call in which he sounded like he was calling Trump supporters “garbage.” Trump responded in Wisconsin on Wednesday by speaking to the press from inside a garbage truck.
While in Nevada, Trump continued his focus on Biden's remarks.
“How stupid is a man to say that,” Trump said. “How stupid is a man to say that. But she believes it, too."
His meandering address touched on a wide range of topics. Trump claimed Harris lacked the stamina to run for office, hyped his social media platform TruthSocial and bragged about his endorsement from Elon Musk.
"I would say, you got to say, in terms of computer, I would say he's probably about as good as you get," Trump said about Musk.
At one point, Trump also suggested that Border Patrol officers are able to determine which migrants are good and which are bad just by looking at them.
"They go trouble, trouble, trouble, — no trouble — trouble, trouble. They can look at them and they can see good or bad," Trump said.
Trump also made an unusual campaign stop in New Mexico on Thursday, a state that has not elected a Republican to the White House since 2004. The rally in Albuquerque marked his first time in the reliably Democratic state since his 2020 run for the White House.
Trump told the crowd he traveled to the state to win over Latino voters.
"I’m here for one simple reason: I like you very much, and it’s good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community," he said.
Trump said it would take record turnout from Latino voters for him to win New Mexico, and also claimed he's won the state every year he’s run for president, despite back to back losses in 2016 and 2020.
The home stretch
Starting Friday, the two campaigns will be racing from swing state to swing state trying to rally supporters and win over the last remaining undecided voters. Harris will have stops in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin before wrapping her campaign Monday with a flurry of rallies in Pennsylvania — including one in Allentown, where more than half of the people are Latino -- mainly Puerto Rican.
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