Harris, Trump Seek Latino Votes        10/22 06:28

   Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump see economic policy as their best chance 
to win Latino voters. But their approaches are very different.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump see economic policy 
as their best chance to win Latino voters. But their approaches are very 
different.

   In an interview with Telemundo on Tuesday afternoon, Vice President Harris 
plans to highlight how her agenda would create more opportunities for Latino 
men -- a strategy born out of roughly a dozen focus groups and polling.

   The Democratic nominee intends to show off her plans to double the number of 
registered apprenticeships. She wants to stress how she would remove college 
degree requirements for certain federal government jobs and encourage private 
employers to do likewise. And Harris wants to provide forgivable loans worth up 
to $20,000 each to 1 million small businesses.

   Former President Trump, the Republican nominee, is making his own outreach 
to Latinos on Tuesday by holding a roundtable with them in Doral, a Miami 
suburb.

   His campaign says he will make the case that employment, wages and home 
ownership increased for Latinos during his time in office. The campaign also 
says he will argue that Harris and President Joe Biden stuck Latinos with high 
inflation and that "Trump is the only candidate who can bring prosperity back 
to America."

   The Trump and Harris campaigns see what could be an election-deciding 
opportunity with Latino men, who could swing the outcome in states such as 
Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada if their traditional support for Democrats 
erodes. Trump believes he's made inroads among Latino men. Harris' team is 
seeking to shore up support within the same group with the election just two 
weeks away.

   It sets up a question of whether memories of a Trump presidency or the 
promise of new policies under Harris will do more to energize Latino voters.

   "We are very confident that these policies resonate because we've seen them 
resonate in speeches and focus groups," said Matt Barreto, a Harris campaign 
pollster. "It speaks to Latino men in particular about being successful and 
achieving the American dream."

   Both campaigns are jockeying for an edge with the increasingly diverse 
electorate in the closing weeks of the campaign. Harris has also focused on 
Black men, to whom she also pitched the forgivable loans for small businesses. 
She's gone on the podcast "Call Her Daddy" to appeal to younger women, while 
Trump has appeared on podcasts to target younger men.

   Trump participated in a town hall last week on Univision where his major 
pitch to Latinos was that the economy had been phenomenal during his White 
House term.

   "We had the greatest economy in the history of our country," Trump said. 
"Now we have a lousy economy primarily because of inflation. So we're going to 
get rid of the inflation."

   The former president's description of his own economic record typically 
excludes the mass job losses and recession caused by the pandemic in 2020. 
Inflation is now at a relatively healthy 2.4%, but frustration still lingers 
for voters from inflation spiking in June 2022 at 9.1% as gasoline, groceries 
and housing became much more expensive.

   On Univision, Trump said increased oil production would bring down overall 
inflation if he was elected. He has also suggested his combination of tariff 
hikes and tax cuts will help growth, though his campaign lacks details compared 
to the policy guide released by Harris' team.

   In a close race, the Harris campaign is betting that Latino men are getting 
more attuned to policy specifics as the election draws closer.

   Based on focus groups, Barreto said the Harris campaign found that Latino 
men in particular wanted access to apprenticeships that could give people 
without college degrees access to a financially stable career.

   The latest Labor Department figures show there are 641,044 registered 
apprenticeships, an increase from the Trump administration, when 
apprenticeships peaked in 2020 at 569,311. Doubling that figure as Harris has 
proposed would put the total number of apprenticeships at roughly 1.2 million 
over four years.

   Latino men also expressed a need for access to capital and credit to start 
companies, as the Treasury Department reported on Oct. 10 that Latino business 
ownership is up 40% over pre-pandemic levels and could keep climbing with 
better financing options.

   Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will be on Univision's El 
Bueno, La Mala, y El Feo, a syndicated radio show, this week, while Harris' 
husband, Doug Emhoff, will be interviewed this week by Univision's nationally 
syndicated afternoon radio show, El Free-Guey Show. Emhoff will also be 
interviewed by Alex "El Genio" Lucas on Nueva Network Radio.

   Trump hopes to convince Latinos that they can trust a fellow businessman 
such as himself, even as he's also called for the mass deportation of 
immigrants in the country illegally.

   "Hispanic people -- they say you can't generalize, but I think you can -- 
they have wonderful entrepreneurship and they have -- oh, do you have such 
energy. Just ease up a little bit, OK? Ease up," Trump said at an Oct. 12 
event. "You have great ambition, you have great energy, very smart, and you 
really do like natural entrepreneurs."