Obama to boost Harris in Tucson as campaign reaches out to young men of color
When former President Barack Obama comes to Tucson on Friday, he will have a chance to make inroads with a key voter demographic that is moving away from Vice President Kamala Harris: young Black and Latino men.
Obama's trip to Arizona comes as former President Donald Trump is gaining ground with young men of color across the handful of battleground states that will decide the election.
"A majority of young Hispanic men are voting for Trump," Suffolk University pollster David Paleologos said. "That's why Barack Obama's being deployed."
Trump is leading the presidential race among young Latino men in Arizona, earning 51% of support among Latino men ages 18 to 34, according to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll conducted at the end of September. Trump's lead was even larger among Latino men ages 35 to 49 at 57%. Harris was below 40% of support with both groups, the poll showed.
In a state such as Arizona where nearly one in four voters is Latino and statewide elections are often decided by a few thousand votes, Harris and Trump are battling for every demographic group ahead of Election Day on Nov. 5. Among all Arizona voters, polls show a tight contest with Trump slightly ahead.
"This electoral cycle is very special. The main issues are the same for all segments of the population. Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, females, and males have all been constantly affected by a terrible economy, an unprecedented border crisis, and surging crime rates all over the country," said Jaime Florez, the Trump campaign's Hispanic communications director. "President Trump has proven solutions for all of these problems and his message is resonating with all communities, particularly among Hispanics."
The window to sway voters is closing; early ballots began going out across Arizona last week. But to reach them, polling shows that there's no better messenger than Obama to make the case for Harris.
Obama's endorsement carries the most weight of any well-known figure, especially among Hispanic voters, according to a national USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll of celebrity endorsements from earlier this year. The Obamas held more cachet than top podcaster Joe Rogan, tech billionaire Elon Musk and other celebrity figures, including Beyoncé, Tiger Woods, Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian, the poll found.
"Obama and Michelle Obama were the most influential of all of the people on the list," Paleologos said. "But among Hispanics, it was even higher."
Nearly a third of voters surveyed said the endorsement of the Obamas would matter to them as they considered who to vote for in November. Among Hispanic voters, the figure jumped to 51%.
That's the case for Frank J. Cota, a member of Harris' veterans coalition, who plans to travel nearly 100 miles from his home in Chandler to see Obama speak Friday in Tucson.
"I'll drive anywhere to go see him. He's the best," Cota, 64, said Wednesday in an interview after a Harris campaign event.
Despite his popularity, Obama never carried Arizona in either of his presidential campaigns. Home state Sen. John McCain defeated Obama by 8 percentage points in Arizona in 2008 and Republican Mitt Romney won the presidential race here by a similar 9% margin in 2012.
It's clear that the Harris campaign is trying to make an appeal to young men of color in Arizona and across the country. Harris just put out a new economic policy proposal tailored to Black men, launched a "Hombres con Harris" tour in Arizona and has appeared on podcasts aimed at reaching young men in both groups.
Harris campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond, a member of Congress, touted the new economic agenda for Black men and said Trump's agenda is a "a national nightmare" in comparison.
"This agenda is a further realization of Vice President Harris' Opportunity Economy," Richmond said. "Where Black men are equipped with the tools to thrive: to buy a home, provide for our families, start a business and build wealth. Donald Trump could care less about equipping hardworking Americans with the tools needed to get ahead."
The challenge, polls show, is that those voters are frustrated by the economy and immigration, the two issues where Trump is strongest. That's led to a significant shift toward Trump that could tip the balance in a battleground state like Arizona.
Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego has a larger advantage with young men of color than his party's presidential nominee, leading Paleologos to say that the issue is specific to Harris rather than the Democratic Party at large.
"What I'm seeing in the numbers is a disconnect between young men, and not even the Democratic Party, because Gallego is winning. It's between young men and Harris herself," Paleologos said.
Harris is still beating Trump among young Black men across the battleground states, according to a new poll from The Howard University Initiative on Public Opinion , but Trump is cutting into her support with Black men under 50. One in five of those voters plans to cast ballots for the GOP nominee across the battleground states, the survey found.
Janiyah Thomas, the Team Trump Black media director, said in a written statement that "Black men aren't supporting Kamala Harris because they already know that Trump delivered upon his promises" and that "in Kamala's America, Black Americans know that we come last."
In Obama's view, the economy and immigration aren't the only reasons for the gender gap between Trump and Harris, who would be the nation's second Black president if elected.
Obama spoke directly to Black men at a Harris campaign office in Pennsylvania last week, saying he noticed there isn't as much enthusiasm among them for Harris as there was when Obama was on the ballot.
Black men are "coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses," Obama said, adding that "I've got a problem with that."
"Because part of it makes me think ― and I'm speaking to men directly ― part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you're coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that," Obama said.
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At a Harris event aimed at mobilizing Black voters in Phoenix earlier this month, actor Michael Ealy said he has a hard time understanding why young men of color are moving toward Trump.
"If I was able to kind of reach out to them and talk to them, I feel like there's a way in which we can hear them and then turn that around into something more positive, into something more realistic," Ealy said. "No person can come to me and tell me that Trump's policies are going to benefit the Black community. Nobody can say that."
