当副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯在9月下旬访问亚利桑那州的边境城镇道格拉斯时，这标志着亚历山德拉·Cáez和她的朋友Miguel Angel Felix Pacheco和Hector Felix第一次看到总统候选人访问他们所谓的“沉睡”的城镇。
这些朋友都是20多岁，对附近的边界有不同的看法。费利克斯称之为他“日常生活”的一部分cáez说“每个人都有点忽视我们的社区，尽管每个人都在谈论边界”，并欢迎哈里斯的关注。
哈里斯访问了关键的战场州亚利桑那州，宣布更严格的边境政策--随着选举日的临近，这是一个关键的选民问题。哈里斯和前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)正在努力触及边境安全、移民和经济等关键选民问题，同时试图吸引不同的拉丁裔选民，这是增长最快、规模最大的群体之一。
自上次总统选举以来，拉美裔在美国选民中的增长速度在所有主要种族和族裔群体中位居第二，根据皮尤研究中心。他们是美国第二大合格选民群体。
通过广告、外联和竞选活动，哈里斯和特朗普的竞选团队都努力吸引拉美裔选民，包括在讲西班牙语的观众面前参加两次不同的Univision市政厅活动，哈里斯周四晚上的活动和特朗普下周的活动。
尽管如此，许多拉美人表示，政客触摸边境墙的照片不会解决他们的问题。
“我认为两党真正搞砸的地方是他们把我们都放在同一个桶里，”宾夕法尼亚州雷丁的波多黎各选民恩里克·卡斯特罗(Enrique Castro)说。“是的，我承认需要对边境采取一些措施，但他们去边境拍照，这不会改变任何事情，特别是没有一个切实的计划来解决这个问题，不让移民看起来像是罪犯。”
宾夕法尼亚州的雷丁经常被称为“拉丁裔带”，据统计，该州67%的人口有拉丁血统美国人口普查数字。2011年，它以41%的贫困率被宣布为美国最贫困的城市——尽管它在2023年下降到29%，但仍然是全国平均水平的两倍多，根据美国人口调查局的调查结果.
对于阅读选民以及拉美裔选民来说，拉美裔外联和经济信息都很重要。
根据八月份美国广播公司新闻/华盛顿邮报/益普索民意调查，拉美裔选民的首要问题是经济、通货膨胀和医疗保健。民调显示，这些优先事项与美国人总体面临的首要问题完全一致。
拉丁美洲社区的多样性
专家告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)，在宾夕法尼亚州和亚利桑那州等战场州，哈里斯和特朗普陷入了极其微弱的竞争，拉美裔选民对他们越过终点线至关重要，知道如何吸引边境州和其他战场的拉美裔选民是一项至关重要的任务。
民主党策略师查克·罗查(Chuck Rocha)说:“(拉美裔人)来自这么多不同的国家，所以你不能带着墨西哥宽边帽和墨西哥玉米卷卡车出现在迈阿密。”。
社区的多样性使得很难针对不同的文化和代际差异。Rocha说，对萨尔瓦多裔美国人来说，重要的是与波多黎各人不同的东西，因此也应该向这些群体伸出援手。
为了达到这些不同的文化身份，包括在拉丁美洲的保护伞下，哈里斯竞选团队表示，他们已经发起了一项强大的努力，以“微目标”社区为目标，这是一项量身定制的努力，以最好地服务于其目标受众。
“拉丁裔选民的投票既重要又多样，从第一天起，我们的竞选就反映了我们社区的多样性。哈里斯-瓦尔兹联盟媒体总监马卡·卡萨多在一份声明中说:“我们有超过13个拉丁裔散居群体，包括Boricuas con卡玛拉、Venezolanos con卡玛拉和Mexicanos con卡玛拉，这是一项针对拉丁裔人的积极付费媒体活动，他们在任何地方消费新闻，以及WhatsApp上的新组织工作，我们正在实施一项超越拉丁裔的外联战略，旨在赢得每一张选票。”
就哈里斯竞选团队而言，他们已经努力让他们的信息远离身份政治。他们在亚利桑那州、内华达州和宾夕法尼亚州用英语和西班牙语刊登广告，重点是经济、高药价和犯罪。
罗查说，哈里斯的竞选活动在针对不同的拉丁裔选民方面很有效。
“你可以看到他们在宾夕法尼亚州用波多黎各西班牙语做广告，在亚利桑那州用墨西哥西班牙语做广告，”罗查说。"这场运动的方式是正确的:微定位、多种语言、不同的文化内容."
共和党策略师迈克·马德里表示，他同意根据拉丁裔选民的文化身份对不同群体进行演讲是有好处的，但他表示，他认为竞选活动应该更多地关注拉丁裔选民作为“工人阶级选民”这一策略可能会吸引拉丁美洲人对经济的看法，根据一项调查，特朗普在经济问题上领先哈里斯最近美国广播公司新闻/华盛顿邮报/益普索民意调查.
“他们的目标过于微观，他们在关注最大的共同线索方面做得不够，这是一个经济民粹主义者，钱包选民，”马德里说，他是林肯项目的联合创始人，以反对特朗普，并积极帮助拜登竞选2020年总统。“他们应该做的是更多地以工人阶级选民的身份与他们交谈，而不是以拉丁裔选民的身份与他们交谈。”
马德里说，共和党人采用这种策略，将拉丁美洲人作为美国工人阶级，而不是他们的种族身份。
6月，特朗普竞选团队将其拉美裔外联活动从“拉美裔支持特朗普”更名为“拉美裔美国人支持特朗普”，强调拉美裔选民的美国身份。特朗普的竞选团队还在宾夕法尼亚州的雷丁开设了办公室。
本周早些时候，特朗普在雷丁举行集会，期间他错误地将移民描述为入侵。
“我们不会允许这些人侵略我们或征服我们，”特朗普说。
两个竞选团队都在努力吸引宾夕法尼亚州的选民，这是一个重要的战场州，拜登在2020年赢得了大约8万张选票。据调查，哈里斯仅以1%的优势领先538的平均投票率.
此外，两位候选人都在努力在战场上吸引令人垂涎的拉丁裔选民。根据一项调查，拉丁裔选民的比例为57%比39%，哈里斯-特朗普九月皮尤调查研究与黑人选民的77%和13%相比，差距要大得多。
自2016年以来，有资格投票的拉美裔人数增长了40%，根据皮尤研究中心。罗查说，美国社区相对较新，这使得他们不太可能忠于某个政党，而更可能根据“谁出现了”来投票。
但马德里警告说，民主党人有疏远第三代和第四代选民的风险，这些选民不再认同只是露面的政客。他推测，这些年轻的选民正在创造一个“新的投票的出现。”
“这是一个崭露头角的机会，因为(他们)太年轻了，”马德里说。
31%的拉丁裔选民不到30岁，根据皮尤研究中心，估计今年有3620万人有资格投票，高于2020年的3230万人。皮尤研究中心发现，这代表了这段时间合格选民总增长的50%。
“他们正在上线，并成为非常独特的东西，”马德里补充说。
费利克斯、Cáez和道格拉斯的帕切科在科齐斯社区学院的一次学习会议后接受了美国广播公司的采访，哈里斯同时在那里进行了计划中的竞选活动。当他们看着与会者走进去的时候，他们说他们不会听到哈里斯的演讲，也不确定她对他们社区的访问是否会转化为11月对副总统的投票。
尽管如此，这三个朋友还是继续在会场外面等着，希望能一睹哈里斯的风采。
帕切科说，他希望从哈里斯身上看到一些东西，激励他以其他政治家迄今未能为他做的方式参与进来。
“我希望看到一些我们以前没有见过的东西，”帕切科说。
Latino voters in battlegrounds share diverse priorities they want Harris, Trump to address
When Vice President Kamala Harris visited the border town of Douglas, Arizona, in late September, it marked the first time Alexandra Cáñez and her friends, Miguel Angel Felix Pacheco and Hector Felix, had ever seen a presidential candidate visit what they call their "sleepy" town.
The friends -- all in their 20s -- have differing views of the nearby border. Felix calls it part of his "everyday life;" Cáñez said "everyone kind of disregards our community even though everyone is always talking about the border" and welcomed Harris' attention.
Harris visited the critical battleground state of Arizona to announce stricter border policies -- a key voter issue as Election Day approaches. Harris and former President Donald Trump are working to both touch on key voter issues, such as border security, immigration and the economy while trying to appeal to diverse Latino voters -- one of the fastest-growing and largest groups -- in battleground states.
Latinos have grown at the second-fastest rate of any major racial and ethnic group in the U.S. electorate since the last presidential election,according to Pew Research. They are the second-largest group of eligible voters in the United States.
Through ads, outreach and campaign events, both the Harris and Trump campaigns have worked to engage Latino voters -- including participating in two different Univision town hall events in front of Spanish-speaking audiences with Harris' event on Thursday evening and Trump's taking place next week.
Still, many Latinos say photos of politicians touching the border wall aren't going to solve their problems.
"I think where both parties really mess it up is they put us all in the same bucket," said Enrique Castro, a Reading, Pennsylvania, voter who is Puerto Rican. "Yes, I acknowledge something needs to be done about the border, but them going down there to take pictures at the border, that's not gonna change anything here, especially without an actual plan of fixing it without making immigrants look like they're criminals."
Reading, Pennsylvania, often referred to as the "Latino Belt," boast 67% of its population has Latin decent, according toU.S. census figures. In 2011, it was declared the poorest city in America with a poverty rate of 41% -- although it dropped to 29% in 2023, which is still more than double the national average, according toU.S. Census Bureau findings.
For Reading voters -- as well as Latino voters overall, both Latino outreach and economic messaging are important.
The top issues for Hispanic voters are the economy, inflation and health care, according to an August ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll. The priorities fall right in line with the top issues for Americans overall, polling shows.
Diversity within the Latino community
In the battleground states, such as Pennsylvania and Arizona, where Harris and Trump are locked in a razor-thin race, the Latino vote is crucial in getting them over the finish line -- and knowing how to appeal to the Latino voters in both border states and other battlegrounds is a crucial mission as Election Day nears, experts told ABC News.
"[Latinos] come from so many different countries of origin, so you can't just show up in Miami with a sombrero and a taco truck," said Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha.
The diversity of the community makes it difficult to target the ranging cultural and generational differences. What matters to an El Salvadoran American varies from Puerto Ricans and so, too, should the outreach toward these groups, Rocha said.
In order to reach these differing cultural identities including under the Latino umbrella, the Harris campaign said it has launched a robust effort to "micro target" the community – an effort that tailors outreach to best serve its intended audience.
"The Latino vote is as critical as it is diverse, and since day one, our campaign has reflected our community's diversity. With over 13 Latino Diaspora groups including, Boricuas con Kamala, Venezolanos con Kamala and Mexicanos con Kamala, an aggressive paid media campaign targeting Latinos everywhere they consume news, and new organizing efforts on WhatsApp, we're running an all-the-above Latino outreach strategy designed to earn every single vote," Harris-Walz Coalitions Media Director Maca Casado said in a statement.
The Harris campaign, for their part, has made efforts to decenter their message from identity politics. They're running ads in Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania in both English and Spanish that focus on the economy, high drug prices and crime.
Rocha said the Harris campaign is effective in targeting different Latino voters.
"You see them doing ads in Pennsylvania in Puerto Rican Spanish and ads in Arizona in Mexican Spanish," Rocha said. "The campaign's doing it in the right way: micro-targeting, multiple languages, different cultural content."
Republican strategist Mike Madrid said he agrees that speaking to varying groups of Latinos voters based on their cultural identity has merit, but he said he thinks the campaign should be more focused on Latinos as "working-class voters." That strategy could appeal to Latinos' views on the economy, an election issue where Trump leads Harris, according to arecent ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll.
"They're over micro-targeting, and they're not doing enough to focus on the largest common thread, which is an economic populist, pocketbook voter," said Madrid, who co-founded The Lincoln Project to oppose Trump and actively helped Biden in his 2020 presidential bid. "What they should be doing is speaking more to them as working-class voters and less as Latino voters."
Madrid said Republicans are employing this strategy by targeting Latinos as working-class Americans rather than by their ethnic identity.
In June, the Trump campaign rebranded its Hispanic outreach from "Latinos for Trump" to "Latino Americans for Trump," emphasizing the American identity of the Latino voter. Trump's campaign also opened an office in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Earlier this week, Trump held a rally in Reading, during which he falsely described immigration as an invasion.
"We will not allow these people to invade us or to conquer us," Trump said.
Both campaigns are working to appeal to voters in Pennsylvania, an important battleground state, which Biden won by some 80,000 votes in 2020. Harris is only ahead by a 1% margin, according to538's polling average.
Also, both candidates are working to attract the coveted Latino vote in the battlegrounds. Latino voters divide 57-39%, Harris-Trump, according to aSeptember Pew Research study-- a far greater divide compared to Black voters who split 77-13%.
The number of Latinos eligible to vote has grown by 40% since 2016,according to Pew Research. Rocha said that the relative newness of the community in the United States has made them less likely to be loyal to one particular party and more likely to vote based on "who shows up."
But Madrid warns that Democrats risk alienating third and fourth generation voters who no longer identify with politicians who are simply showing up. He surmised that these younger voters are creating an "emergence of a new vote."
"It's an emergence because [they] are so young," said Madrid.
Thirty-one percent of Latino voters are under 30,according to Pew Research, and an estimated 36.2 million are eligible to vote this year, up from 32.3 million in 2020. This represents 50% of the total growth in eligible voters during this time, Pew Research found.
"They're coming online and emerging as something very unique," Madrid added.
Felix, Cáñez and Pacheco of Douglas spoke to ABC News after a study session at Cochise Community College where Harris was making a planned campaign stop at the same time. As they watched attendees go inside, they said they would not be hearing Harris speak and were unsure about whether her visit to their community would translate into a vote for the vice president in November.
Still, the three friends continued to wait outside the venue in hopes of catching a glimpse of Harris.
Pacheco said he was hoping to see something from Harris that would inspire him to participate in a way other politicians have failed to do for him so far.
"[I'm] hoping to see something we haven't seen before," Pacheco said.
