‘We like hard work’: 5 things to know from Kamala Harris’ 2nd rally in Las Vegas

“So, Las Vegas, we have 37 days until the election, and we know this is a tight race until the very end,” she said at the Expo at the World Market Center, where former President Donald Trump rallied just a couple of weeks before. “We are the underdog, and there’s some hard work ahead. But here’s the thing: We like hard work.”

The vice president gave a 25-minute speech to a crowd of about 7,500, touching on topics from abortion rights to Project 2025 to the upcoming vice presidential debate on Tuesday. She reiterated her biography, from growing up in a middle-class family to working as a prosecutor, and she explained the ways in which Nevadans can cast their vote, whether through early voting, by mail or in person on Election Day.

Here are five things to know about Harris’ rally in Las Vegas on Sunday.

1. The rally marked her eighth visit to Nevada this year — underscoring Nevada’s importance in the presidential race.

National eyes are on Nevada this year as its small electoral votes could become the determining factor in who wins the presidential race. Cycle after cycle, candidates seek out the purple state’s votes.

That is why Harris, who even before she had the White House in mind, has made almost monthly visits to Nevada. Sunday night marked her eighth stop this year — though all of her trips have been to Southern Nevada rather than the northern county of Washoe County, which is considered the largest swing county in Nevada.

Polls put Harris and Trump neck and neck in Nevada, and their regular visits show their tug-of-war efforts to win over the state.

Trump’s Sept. 13 rally in Las Vegas marked his fourth trip. Since Harris joined the race, she has visited the Silver State twice.

2. Harris highlighted her plan for the economy.

Nevada voters put the economy as the No. 1 issue, according to multiple polls. On Sunday, Harris made promises on actions she’d take to help the economy, if elected.

She pledged to help small businesses by implementing a $50,000 tax deduction for startups. She said she’d lower costs for health care and groceries by taking on corporate price gouging and said she’d give a tax cut to families, including $6,000 to families for the first year of a child’s life.

Harris also said she’ll cut red tape and pledged to work with the private sector to build 3 million new homes and provide first-time home buyers $25,000 in down payment assistance.

To make more jobs are available to people without college degrees, Harris said she’d get rid of unnecessary degree requirements for federal jobs.

“I will always put the middle class and working families first. I come from the middle class, and I will never forget where I come from,” Harris said.

What was absent in her economic plan rundown was her call for ending taxes on tips, a proposal originally from Donald Trump that he announced during a Las Vegas rally in the summer. In an August visit to Las Vegas, the vice president came out in support of the plan, coupled with an increase in the federal minimum wage, which at $7.25 an hour now is well below Nevada’s $12 minimum wage.

In rebuttal to Harris’ visit in Nevada and her talks about the economy, the Republican National Committee criticized what they called “Kamalanomics” and said it costs the average household nearly $1,200 a month.

“A stop in Nevada does not change the fact that Nevadans feel they are worse off today than they were four years ago and are eager to return to President Trump’s policies and his track record of prosperity,” said Halee Dobbins, Nevada communications director for the RNC, in a statement.

3. Harris attempted to get ahead of Trump on immigration.

With immigration as the issue to which she is politically vulnerable due to the surge of border crossings in the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration, Harris attempted to underscore her plans to fix the issues on the southern border during the rally in Las Vegas.

Just two days before her visit to Nevada, Harris visited the southern border for the first time as the Democratic nominee, where she announced new border restrictions that would go further than Biden’s executive orders that tightened security on the border and allowed him to suspend asylum claims between ports of entry when there is an average of 1,500 crossings a day. Her campaign’s positions are notably more restrictive than positions she took in an unsuccessful run for president in the 2020 election.

“We must have comprehensive immigration reform, with strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship,” she said.

She highlighted her role as attorney general in California prosecuting transnational criminal organizations. She pledged to double the resources of the Department of Justice to go after cartels and take action to stop the flow of fentanyl, though she did not specify how.

Harris criticized Trump for urging members of Congress to block a bipartisan immigration package and said he continues to fan the flames of division.

4. Harris tried to win over the Latino vote.

The vice president attempted to appeal to a crucial bloc of voters in Nevada: Latinos. Nearly one in five registered voters is Latino, and both campaigns have tried to garner their attention during the cycle.

The crowd held signs that said, “Cuando luchamos, ganamos.” “When we fight, we win.” Behind the vice president, a sign read “vamos.”

The DNC launched an ad campaign on Saturday in English and Spanish targeting Latino voters in battleground states and warning them of the dangers of Project 2025, and the Trump campaign launched a “Que Mala Kamala” ad during Hispanic Heritage Month.

Ahead of Harris’ speech, Noe Quintero, captain with the Clark County Fire Department, introduced Harris and explained why he is voting for her.

“When I look at my children, I know Kamala Harris is the only choice for this election,” he said. He mentioned wanting them to be able to only have to work one job and have reproductive rights.

Harris, who noted her own family’s immigrant story, highlighted goals of creating an earned pathway to citizenship, “including for hardworking immigrants who have been here for years, including our DREAMERS.”

5. Harris pointed to Nevada as an example of what to do in the aftermath of a shooting.

Harris said the freedom to be safe from gun violence is at stake and that “after 1 October, Nevada proved that smart gun safety laws are just common sense.”

After the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting in Las Vegas that killed 60 people, Nevada passed laws requiring background checks, red flag laws and banning of bump stocks that were used in the shooting. As president, Trump banned bump stocks on the federal level, but that action by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms was overturned in June by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The vice president’s remarks came just days before the seventh anniversary of the Route 91 Harvest festival shooting, which is still the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.