Few communities in the United States have as much power when it comes to handing over the key to the White House as the Latinos of Pennsylvania, the largest of the “hinge” states.where the racist joke against Puerto Rico at a Trump rally in the final stretch of the presidential campaign has not gone down well.
The words of a comedian who described Puerto Rico as a “garbage island” could cause an electoral earthquake and, aware of this, both the former president (2017-2021) and Republican candidate Donald Trump, as well as the vice president and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, decided to spend this Monday, the election eve, in Reading and Allentown, both cities with a Latino majority in Pennsylvania .
“I didn’t like the comment that was made at Trump’s rally. It is the country where I was born, my parents are buried there and I guard it with all my heart”Ángel Avilés, 61, tells EFE when leaving a Latin supermarket in the center of Allentown.
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Asked about the voting intention of his Puerto Rican relatives, Avilés is clear: “Everyone for Harris. No one wants Trump. Trump is a fascist”he states.
The inhabitants of Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the United States, cannot vote in the presidential elections, but the millions of Puerto Ricans who reside in the United States can do so..
The Harris campaign wants to appeal to those voters and has organized caravans of vehicles that travel through Allentown with Puerto Rican flags, “president” signs (in Spanish) and loud reggaeton.
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Just a few blocks away, Daniel Campo, 28 years old and of Venezuelan origin, participates as a volunteer in the Trump campaign asking to vote for the New York tycoon.
He affirms that the racist comment has not altered the vote of the Puerto Ricans with whom he has spoken: “Some will say that the joke was not good, but they are going to vote for Trump”.
“Here we are in a Latin neighborhood and things are more or less ‘even’ (tied), 50 to 50, between Latinos,” he adds.
A decisive territory
The 19 electoral votes that Pennsylvania contributes are the jewel in the crown of Tuesday’s electionsin which surveys draw a scenario so tight that making predictions is impossible.
This state in the country’s former rust belt traditionally voted Democratic until Trump flipped it in 2016 and, four years later, Joe Biden beat the Republican by a narrow margin of 80,000 votes.
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All eyes are on the Hispanic vote, given that Pennsylvania has doubled its Latino population in two decades up to 620 thousand registered to vote. More than half of Allentown’s population is Latino, the majority Puerto Rican, followed by Dominicans.
Although Trump has not apologized for comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke at his New York rallya few days later he visited Allentown and promised: “I will bring the best future to Puerto Ricans and Hispanics”.
The controversy grew even more when Biden responded to the joke by calling Trump’s followers “trash.”words that the White House qualified and from which Harris distanced herself.
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Ana Patricia Martínez, 62, originally from Honduras and resident of Allentown, will vote for Trump and accuses Democrats of having a double standard: “(Biden) said we were all trash, the president said it and people stayed silent “he complains.
Trump gains ground
Historically, Hispanics have voted overwhelmingly Democratic, but Trump has managed to reduce this gap and is the Republican presidential candidate who performs best with Latinos.despite his speech that demonizes migrants.
Martínez, who has been in Allentown for three decades, embraces this rhetoric: “On the one hand, he is right, because good and bad (migrants) come, and the good pay for the bad,” he maintains.
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Trumpism is also fishing for votes among Latinos thanks to widespread discontent over the high inflation of recent years and also among evangelicals..
On a street corner, Ben Forrest rushes through the final hours of the campaign by handing out pro-Harris signs to passing vehicles. Some honk in support and others boo.
“I think the Latino community will support Kamala Harris,” he says. But then he confesses that he doesn’t have them all: “I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump won in Pennsylvania.”
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