Biden campaign launches outreach for Latino voters in Pennsylvania and across the country • Pennsylvania Capital-Star

As President Joe Biden campaigned across the southwestern U.S. on Tuesday, members of the Pennsylvania Legislative Latino Caucus gathered in Harrisburg to urge Latino voters in Pennsylvania to support the president’s reelection.

“For the people that are just not even a full generation removed from experiencing communism throughout Latin America from countries like Haiti, Venezuela and Argentina, it’s very close to Trump’s beliefs,” state Rep. Danilo Burgos (D-Philadelphia) said of Pennsylvania’s Latino immigrant population. “It’s a stark reminder of what they ran away from, and not voting, or abstaining from voting, is voting for Trump.”

Pennsylvania doesn’t have the large Latino population that states like Arizona and Texas have,  but Latinos and Hispanics across the commonwealth make up about 7.5% of the voting population, roughly 1.2 million people across all 67 counties.

Although Biden won the majority of Hispanic votes nationwide in 2020, former President Donald Trump earned more votes from Latinos in 2020 than he did in 2016, according to an analysis by Pew Research. In hopes of garnering the united support of Hispanic communities nationwide, the Biden campaign launched its “Latinos con Biden-Harris” program.

“Because we turned out in 2020, we achieved the lowest unemployment rate for Latinos in a long time,” Biden told attendees at a rally in Phoenix on Tuesday. “We made historic investments in Latino small businesses, and we addressed gun violence in the communities.”

Biden also took direct aim at Trump, reminding the crowd about how he has denigrated Latinos from the start of his first campaign in 2015.

“In 2016, he called Latinos ‘criminals,’ ‘drug dealers’ and ‘rapists,’” Biden said. “Now he says immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country’… What the hell is he talking about? The reason we are as good as we are is because we are the most diverse country in the world.”

Biden added that Trump only aims to serve the wealthy, as he cited a quote from a speech Trump gave at his private Mar-a-Lago club in December, where he promised tax cuts to wealthy attendees.

“That’s the last thing I’ll do,” Biden said, reiterating his plans to impose a 25% tax on wealthy Americans worth more than $100 million.

And as he stands firm on his plans to bring equity back to the American tax system, Biden told attendees that he plans to protect systems like Social Security and Medicare — while Trump is doing damage control after repeatedly suggesting he will cut those programs.

Seniors in Pennsylvania are concerned about Social Security following Trump’s comments

Biden also highlighted his campaign manager Julia Chávez Rodriguez, granddaughter of famed labor activist Cesar Chavez, as a pillar in his administration that “looks like America”  — a promise made back on the campaign trail to diversify the cabinet to better serve America’s marginalized communities.

Burgos added that Biden has helped level the playing field for Latinos, and pointed to the bipartisan deal on border security that fell apart last month.

“He’s done it through the various measures he’s taken to improve the border and improve access to due process for the ones that are here undocumented,” Burgos said. “There will always be people that doubt, but for the most part, if you look at his overall comprehensive bipartisan bill, that the Congress refuses to move, it’s something that provides some much needed security at the border. But also provides a path for those that are here.”

Originally published at penncapital-star.com,by Kim Lyons