Kamala Harris rallies supporters in Nevada, where she has a narrow lead over Trump

LAS VEGAS – Visiting Nevada for the second time since blocking the Democratic presidential nomination, Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday evening gathered more than 7,500 supporters at a convention center in Las Vegas, in hoping to consolidate her position in a state where she leads former President Donald. Trump by less than two percentage points.

In Nevada, a state Harris cannot afford to lose, concerns about the economy are at the forefront of voters’ concerns. The Battle Born State’s reliance on tourism and the service sector jobs it supports has made it particularly vulnerable to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic – disruptions it is still struggling to overcome .

As a result, after sending his “thoughts and prayers” to victims of Hurricane Helen in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, Harris devoted much of his half-hour speech to describing his plans to to create an “opportunity economy”.

“I promise you as president that I will fight for all Americans,” Harris said. “And together, we will build a future that includes thinking about our economy in ways that uplift everyone.” »

She then presented the economic proposals she has presented in recent weeks. These plans include increasing the small business start-up tax credit from $5,000 to $50,000; encourage the construction of 3 million new homes and provide first-time home buyers with $25,000 in down payment assistance; offer a $6,000 tax credit to parents of newborns; open up a host of federal government jobs to people without college degrees; and the crackdown on corporate “price gouging.” Harris chose to omit her plan to not tax service industry workers’ tips, which she implemented shortly after Trump proposed it.

Pivoting toward Trump, she focused on the former president’s plans to cut taxes on the wealthy and raise taxes on the middle class through 20 percent tariffs on all imports that she said , will be passed on to consumers, while contrasting his middle-class upbringing with his privileged status. background. She also credited Trump with a host of ideas that the former president did not explicitly endorse, such as cutting Social Security and Medicare, but which are included in Blueprint 2025, a policy blueprint for right-wing developed by influential conservatives linked to Trump.

“This is a detailed and dangerous blueprint for what he would do if he were elected president again,” Harris said, asking attendees to “just Google it.”

The rally, which carried signs in English and Spanish, was a show of force just two weeks after Trump drew what his campaign estimated were more than 6,000 attendees to the same convention center.

But Harris’ first rally in early August drew more than 14,000 people, suggesting there has been something of a slowdown since the early days after President Joe Biden decided to step down, much to the relief of Democratic supporters .

The crowd, which had received luminous white bracelets, was nevertheless noisy. They booed mentions of Project 2025, preemptively shouted his vague “concepts of a plan” to replace the Affordable Care Act, and when Harris uttered his now trademark phrase – “we’re not going back” – Rally participants began chanting, “No. go back! I won’t go back! »

Harris supporters came from across the Las Vegas metro area and beyond to see her. James and Charlotte Hancock and their friends, Jon and Dawn Amundson, came from Mesquite, a small, conservative town about 80 miles north of Las Vegas. Avowed Democrats in a sea of ​​rural red, the quartet had never seen Harris in person before.

James Hancock, a retired auto body mechanic and heavy machinery operator sporting a Vietnam veteran’s cap, said it was important for him to come “so I can personally tell everyone I know about her.” know – so that I have seen it personally”.

For her part, Charlotte Hancock, James’s wife, a retired banker, spoke of her disappointment when the Equal Rights Amendment to enshrine women’s rights in the Constitution was not ratified by states in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

“I cried when they didn’t pass the amendment to support women and the thought of me being able to see the person who could be the first female president of the United States makes the little teenager who was crying in front of the television happy “, she said.

Nevada’s two Democratic senators – Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen – and three Democratic congressmen – Representatives Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford – warmed up the crowd before Harris’ speech by denouncing the 2025 plan and the issues of the election. for “freedom,” especially the freedom to have an abortion.

Rosen, a first-term senator, fends off a spirited challenge from Republican Sam Brown, a former Army captain. But Rosen leads Brown by about nine percentage points, meaning his support could mean more to Harris than the other way around.

More than his colleagues in Nevada’s congressional delegation, Rosen took pains to present Harris’ specific economic ideas, including the vice president’s proposal to increase the small business startup tax exemption by $5,000 at $50,000.

“Vice President Harris has outlined her economic vision to protect and grow the middle class, because she knows that when the middle class is strong, what are we? We are strong. America is strong,” Rosen said. “And one of the ways we do that is to support the foundation of Nevada’s economy, our small businesses.”

Nevada has become increasingly important to Harris’ path to victory since his last visit to the state in early August.

In two other key Sun Belt states, Georgia and Arizona, Trump has now taken a slight lead over Harris. Given Harris’ razor-thin margins in two of the Great Lakes region’s three Blue Wall states — Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — any other state where she can gain additional leverage is essential.

Harris nonetheless pulled off a remarkable turnaround in Nevada from where Biden was before dropping out of the race. Thanks largely to Biden’s low numbers among Black, Latino and young voters, he was trailing beyond the margin of error. A particularly striking New York Times poll in May showed Biden down 12 points in the state.

Harris further highlighted the challenges ahead in an effort to underscore the urgency of the next five weeks before Election Day.

“We are the underdogs and we have a lot of work to do,” Harris said. “But here’s the thing: we like to work hard! Hard work is good work.

A Harris defeat would mark the first time since 2004 that a Democrat has lost the state in a presidential election.

Some Nevada Republicans are convinced such historic change is coming. The same COVID-19-related economic turmoil and inflation that helped oust Nevada’s Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in 2022 will help Trump prevail, predicted Sig Rogich, a veteran strategist for the Nevada Republican Party. Rogich also cited Republican gains with the state’s significant share of Latino voters, thanks in part to conservative influences like the Latino Chamber of Commerce, a small business umbrella group.

“It’s Trump’s to lose at this point,” Rogich said.

But Nevada Democrats insist Harris is poised to benefit from an economic recovery that has finally begun to take off.

“I don’t think people want to change horses midstream when things look good,” said Tick Segerblom, chairman of the Clark County Commission.

“Trump has overstayed his welcome,” he added. “It’s just old news.”