Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff headlines voter rally at San Antonio College
Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff led a boisterous get-out-the vote rally at Candler Physical Education Center at San Antonio College on Monday that attracted more than 500 people.
Emhoff, the husband of Vice President and Democratic nominee for president Kamala Harris, spent most of his half-hour speech touting her campaign's economic proposals.
Many national polls give Republican presidential nominee and former president Donald Trump higher marks on handling the economy but Harris has been making inroads with voters. Emhoff told the crowd it is easy to poke holes in Trump economics.
"He's the first president to leave office with fewer jobs than we he started since [President Herbert] Hoover. [Trump] ballooned the deficit to unbelievable levels to give these tax cuts to the billionaires and the biggest corporations, and his main plan [is] these tariffs, which is basically a Trump sales tax, which is going to make things $4,000 per family more expensive."
Emhoff reminded the audience that Trump is not self-made but inherited his wealth and had filed multiple business bankruptcies.
"Now people might think he knows what he's doing because of his reality [TV] show, which was entertainment. It was an illusion. Don't buy the illusion. He's not a great businessman. He's not great on the economy. Kamala knows the economy, and her economy is going to work for all of you."
Emhoff said Harris wants to build to three million homes and offer $25,000 down payment assistance to qualified first-time homebuyers, offer a $6,000 child tax credit, and offer $50,000 to new business startups.
Much of the remainder of his speech spoke of Harris' support of reproductive rights and the toll abortion bans have taken on the health of women in Texas and elsewhere — including a jump in maternal mortalities.
"Women are sick and tired of weak men taking away their fundamental rights and then trying to gaslight you about it and pretending they are there for women," he said. "They're not. They're trying to take your rights away."
He was joined by local Democrats running for local, state, and federal offices who individually spoke to urge voters to turn out among a chorus of shouts throughout the rally of "we're not going back."
Emhoff alleged that Republicans, including in Texas, are using voter suppression tactics under the ruse of voting integrity. He called for a turnout so big among Democrats on Election Day that the results can't be denied. He said the Harris campaign has a team of lawyers prepared if needed.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg was among the political leaders that helped fire up the crowd before Emhoff's remarks.
"Today, we are here to defend our right to vote, the most sacred freedom on which all others are based," he said. "But don't kid yourselves. Democracy is on the ballot this November because — let's be clear — your dreams for our country, your normal visions for how you want the future of this country unfold, your choices, your personal choices about how you want to make your own life — those are Donald Trump and J.D. Vance's nightmares."
Congressmen Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar, Precinct 4 County Commissioner Tommy Calvert, former HUD secretary Julian Castro, and Texas House nominees Kristian Carranza and Laurel Jordan Swift also rallied voters to turn out to support Harris.
