Kamala Harris in Las Vegas, encourages people to vote early
With one week left in the 2020 election, Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris of California came to Las Vegas Tuesday night after stumping in Reno earlier in the day.
Reno
Harris’ first stop was at Bartley Ranch Regional Park in Reno for a get-out-the-vote rally, where she delivered her usual campaign speech to the roughly 100 socially-distanced supporters.
“Nevada’s going to help determine the outcome of this election,” Harris told the Reno crowd.
Harris spent much of the roughly 30-minute speech going after President Donald Trump for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and juxtaposed the administration’s continued attempts to undo the Affordable Care Act with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign platform that calls for the expanding former President Barack Obama’s landmark health care law.
Harris also spoke briefly at a rally with UNITE HERE canvassers at Idlewild Park Wednesday afternoon, delivering a five-minute speech from the bed of a blue Dodge Ram pickup truck.
Speaking to reporters on the tarmac at Reno-Tahoe International Airport shortly before leaving town, Harris stressed the importance of early voting, which ends in Nevada on Friday.
Harris was asked what it means for her, as the daughter of Black and Indian parents and as a woman, to be on the cusp of potentially becoming the nation’s next vice president.
“It is my lived experience to know that there are so many people who are suffering right now who need to be seen, need to be heard,” Harris said. “I was just meeting with UNITE HERE and we were talking about hardworking families who deserve to have a president who cares about them and wants to lift them up instead of beating them down.”
Las Vegas
Harris then flew to Las Vegas, where she spoke at Kianga Isoke Palacio Park to more than 200 people, many of them spaced on red, white or blue blankets and wearing “Biden/Harris” masks.
“A path to the White House runs through this field,” she said from a stage with a large backdrop that read “Viva Las Voting” across a painted desert landscape.
Her 25-minute speech touched on many points made in Reno and previous Nevada visits, with a particular focus on COVID-19.
She criticized Trump for saying the country was “rounding the corner” on the pandemic during his debate with Biden last week.
“Meanwhile, here in Nevada, one in seven families is describing members of their household as being hungry,” Harris said. “One in seven households is describing a difficulty paying the rent if they were able to do it at all last month. One in four small businesses is out of business, and he said we’re rounding a corner.”
Much of Harris’ comments attempted to draw stark contrasts between Biden and Trump on health care, the economy, race, climate change and criminal justice reform.
On the economy, for example, Biden asks how working people and families are doing to determine the state of the country’s economy. Trump, she said, asks how the stock market, corporations and billionaires are doing to make his judgment.
In response to her visit, Trump Victory spokesman Keith Schipper drew his own contrasts. He criticized Harris’ positions on immigration, the environment and criminal justice, adding “the contrast between Biden-Harris and President Trump’s America First Policies couldn’t be clearer.”
“Nevadans will soundly reject Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in seven days,” Schipper said.
Harris ended by telling audience members their votes have power and urging them to make sure everyone they know exercises that power.
“Let’s let this moment be the moment that we rise to remind people of the strength our ourselves and each other,” she said.
Contact Capital Bureau Chief Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter. Contact Rory Appleton at rappleton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0276. Follow @RoryDoesPhonics on Twitter.