Liza Colon Zayas and Anthony Ramos (Photo: Robin Beck, AFP) and Kevin Winter (Getty Images)
A New York Times/Siena College poll released on Friday showed Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump by four points (50% to 46%) in Pennsylvania, a battleground state in this election. The Times called the figure “surprising” because the state has been one of the most battleground states in the past two elections and generally tends to lean more Republican than the nation as a whole.
Despite that margin, Democrats are working hard to boost voter turnout among Latino communities across Pennsylvania, especially considering Harris holds a sizable demographic lead in the state.
Actors, celebrities and even vice presidential candidate Tim Walz participated in voter participation rallies and door-to-door canvassing in cities from Bethlehem to Lancaster last weekend, with a particularly notable presence among Puerto Ricans, who make up more than half of the state’s 580,000 Latino eligible voters.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz attended a rally in Bethlehem on Saturday to mark the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Emmy Award-winning actress Liza Colon Zayas and “Hamilton” actor Anthony Ramos, both of Puerto Rican descent, spoke at the rally, urging Puerto Rican voters to support Vice President Kamala Harris.
Colon-Zayas criticized former President Donald Trump’s hurricane relief response, saying he “threw paper towels at us,” a reference to the former president throwing paper towels at churchgoers during a 2017 visit to San Juan, an act that the mayor of San Juan called “abhorrent.”
Colon-Zayas, who recently became the first Latina to win an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in “The Bear,” also spoke about the power of the Latino vote. “Now that I know a little bit about making history, I want to say we can make history again,” she said. “We have more political influence than ever before, and when we vote, we win.”
Meanwhile, in Lancaster, 200 canvassers from CASA in Action, a nonprofit focused on electing progressive candidates, canvassed 3,500 registered voters in a joint effort with former Democratic congressman Luis Gutierrez, who is also Puerto Rican. The campaign was aimed at reaching out to infrequent voters, especially in Pennsylvania’s fifth-largest Hispanic city.
According to NBC News, turnout among Hispanic voters in Pennsylvania has historically been lower than other racial and ethnic groups: In the 2020 election, just over half of Hispanic voters turned out to vote, compared to two-thirds of the overall electorate.
Despite traditionally supporting Democratic candidates, many Latino voters have been less consistent in their party loyalty than other groups, making them “one of the few voting groups that could be mobilized or change their minds,” according to Michael Jones Correa, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
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