TUCSON, Ariz. \u2014 In a stop here Wednesday afternoon, Sen. JD Vance told a crowd of supporters that \u201cTrump\u2019s message to illegal aliens who are in this country without any right to be here, pack your bags. Because in four months, you\u2019re going home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fifteen miles north later in the day, Gov. Tim Walz told supporters that Vice President Kamala Harris would work for \u201cwhat you want \u2026 an earned pathway to citizenship for those who\u2019ve lived here in this country for years.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a span of roughly six hours, the vice-presidential candidates offered voters a clear split screen in how Democrats and Republicans view one of this year\u2019s more salient electoral issues: immigration and the southern border.<\/p>\n
Trump and Vance\u2019s campaign has been heavily focused on closing the southern border and assailing broad swaths of immigrants, often with misleading or false claims. Harris and Walz have conversely shaped their message around cracking down on asylum claims and illegal crossings while showing compassion for the millions of immigrants in the United States, many who fled their home countries in search of a better life.<\/p>\n
The candidates\u2019 visits underscore the significance of the state, which President Joe Biden narrowly flipped in 2020. Pima County, where Tucson is located, leans blue \u2014 Biden won the county by more than 18 percentage points in 2020, an increase from Hillary Clinton\u2019s win in 2016. Harris will campaign in the state Thursday night, and Trump will do so on Sunday.<\/p>\n
A poll of likely voters in the state released this week found 40 percent said immigration and border security is the single most important issue when deciding who to vote for in November. Polls have also shown that voters trust Republicans over Democrats when it comes to the border, and in a border state like Arizona, many voters said the issue is top of mind.<\/p>\n
Vance kicked off the day at the at the Tucson Speedway racetrack, taking the stage 15 minutes early and speaking for around 20 minutes \u2014 telling supporters he would condense his remarks because of the intense heat at the outdoor venue. He spoke to several hundred attendees without a teleprompter, predicting that Republicans will flip the state, while flanked by two giant statues of anthropomorphic cactuses wearing sunglasses, red bandannas and cowboy hats.<\/p>\n
Vance devoted the event to criticizing Harris \u2014 showing jeering attendees a clip of her declining to distance herself from Biden in an interview on \u201cThe View\u201d; blaming her for the increased cost of food, energy and housing; and framing her as unable to fix problems she helped create as vice president. He did not mention Walz during the event, though he did discuss his opponent later in the day at an event in Mesa.<\/p>\n
\u201cTucson is facing a historic border crisis and a historic increase in crime and fentanyl and drug trafficking and sex trafficking. Kamala Harris bears the failures. She bears the responsibilities for the failures of the Joe Biden regime. Don\u2019t let her run away from a record,\u201d Vance said, claiming \u201cthe wide open southern border has affected Tucson, maybe more than any other community in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Supporters waved signs with messages like \u201cTrump secure border Kamala open border\u201d and \u201cLatino Americans for Trump.\u201d Many wore shirts featuring the photo of Trump moments after he was shot in the ear in an assassination attempt earlier this year. Outside the venue, vendors sold other swag, including shirts that depicted Trump in a mariachi outfit.<\/p>\n
Bob Padgett, 79, an attendee at the Vance event from Oro Valley, praised him as \u201cvery bright, very authentic, and his success story is over the top.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about Walz\u2019s nearby appearance, Padgett said \u201cDope. D-O-P-E.\u201d He said that Walz lost credibility after inconsistencies in his record were identified, like Walz claiming to be in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests though he wasn\u2019t there until later that summer. (Walz said he misspoke).<\/p>\n
Walz later took the stage at Palo Verde High Magnet School over two hours late, long after the school gymnasium hit capacity. He drew a larger crowd than Vance, but hundreds of supporters waiting outside in the 98 degree heat were turned away by event staff who said that no one else was allowed inside on order of the fire marshal. Following the directive, the venue held one of the smaller crowds Walz has addressed in recent weeks, but the supporters who made it inside made the most of delays by dancing in large groups to Beyonc\u00e9 and doing the Cupid Shuffle.<\/p>\n
Walz, speaking off a teleprompter, told supporters that border crossings are now lower than they were under Trump and that Harris worked to negotiate a bipartisan border deal that Trump blocked for electoral reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis issue should not divide us. It should unite us. She wants a solution,\u201d Walz said.<\/p>\n
Walz continued, \u201c[Trump] came down here, he comes down to Arizona and tells you, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ll build a big, beautiful wall and Mexico will pay for it.\u2019 He had four years, he built like two percent. Mexico paid nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike Vance, he explicitly attacked his opponent by name multiple times during his speech, calling him out for saying he created stories about Haitian immigrants eating pets and for his answer on family separation during the debate.<\/p>\n
As attendees streamed out of the high school past large flags reading \u201cKeep abortion legal\u201d and vendors hawking stacks of \u201cDogs Against Trump\u201d and \u201cCat Ladies for Kamala\u201d buttons, Walz fans projected the same confidence as the Vance supporters across town hours before \u2014 both sides confident that Tucson will be close, but is theirs to lose.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love him. He\u2019s just a down-to-earth, really good guy. He\u2019s almost like the guy that politicians want to pretend to be, he really is,\u201d Lori Gunnell, 63, a supporter from Bisbee, said of Walz. She shuddered at mention of Vance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think he\u2019s creepy as hell, I really do. And I think he\u2019s an opportunistic \u2026 He said Trump was like Hitler, and now he\u2019s his sidekick. And I\u2019m like, I don\u2019t trust him,\u201d she said of Vance.<\/p>\n
Both vice-presidential contenders also targeted portions of their speeches toward Latino voters \u2014 a key voting group who in polling has shown some drifting away from traditionally supporting Democrats.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur message to Kamala Harris is, why don\u2019t you show some compassion for your own citizens and for your own people? Close down this border,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLatinos in particular ought to be pissed off about Kamala Harris\u2019s wide open southern border,\u201d he added. \u201cThink about what an insult it is to Latinos who came to this country, whose parents or grandparents came to this country, who waited in line, who paid the fees, who worked hard, who did it the right way. It is an insult to them to have Kamala Harris welcome people who break our laws.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walz\u2019s rally coincided with the launch of the campaign\u2019s new effort to reach Latino men, called Hombres con Harris. Actor and singer Jaime Camil told attendees at the rally, \u201cThere is so much on the line for the Latino communities across the country, for our livelihoods, our health care, and for our families.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
TUCSON, Ariz. \u2014 In a stop here Wednesday afternoon, Sen. JD Vance told a crowd of supporters that \u201cTrump\u2019s message to illegal aliens who are in this country without any right to be here, pack your bags. Because in four months, you\u2019re going home.\u201d Fifteen miles north later in the day, Gov. Tim Walz told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}