The NPR Politics Podcast - Weekly Roundup: Latino Voters Could Be Key In PA, NV

Episode Date: September 27, 2024

Folks with Puerto Rican heritage represent a small but vital part of the electorate in Pennsylvania, where a little bit of outreach money could make difference with Latino residents across the state who have historically been somewhat unlikely to vote. And in Nevada, Latino workers make up more than half of the culinary union, which has a hyper-organized voter mobilization effort.And: the Secret Service could be headed for a total overhaul.This episode: political correspondent Susan Davis, campaign correspondent Franco Ordoñez, voting correspondent Ashley Lopez, and congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales.The podcast is produced by Jeongyoon Han, Casey Morell and Kelli Wessinger. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hi, I'm Eva Nye, and my AP Government class is about to share their first Can't Let It Go of the school year. This podcast was recorded at 12.23 p.m. on Friday, September 27th. Things may have changed by the time you hear this, but we'll still be here learning about how to become active, engaged citizens. Okay, here's the show! Great job, guys! Okay, here's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Susan Davis. I cover politics. I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover voting. And I'm Frank Ordonez. I cover the campaigns. And today, two swing states where Latino voters are playing a critical role. One, Nevada, probably doesn't come as a surprise to many of our listeners. But Ashley, you've just spent some time in Pennsylvania. Tell us about where you went. Yeah, so I spent a couple of days in Philly,

obviously. And then I drove up for a day to Redding, Pennsylvania, which is the heart of what people in the area call the Latino corridor in Pennsylvania, which is like not even a thing I knew existed until I started reporting this. It's like this cluster of cities and towns along the 222 North that are all predominantly Latino. Like Redding, for example, is 72% Latino. And the reason I went to these areas is that Latino voters could play a pretty big role in this election, mostly because the margins are just so slim in Pennsylvania. And even though Latinos overall are a pretty small share of the electorate, right? I think in 2020, they were like 6%. All votes really matter in a state like this. And the Harris campaign has the most opportunity to run up some real numbers in these communities because these voters all tend to lean pretty Democratic.

That is true. But it's also part of the Trump theory of the case is that he has more support among blacks and Latinos than past Republican candidates, particularly among male voters. Did that line up with what you saw on the ground there? You know, so I did run into a couple of Latino men who are voting for Trump. Like that, that wasn't hard to find. Right. But, you know, I also found men who were mostly like apolitical, right, or like on the fence about voting altogether. You know, one man I talked to who's Dominican, he said he was going to vote for Trump. He's a business owner and he felt like the economy was better under Trump. But he's now undecided after watching the debate because he didn't like what Trump had to say about Haitian immigrants.

And, you know, the Dominican Republic and Haiti are on the same island. So this felt pretty personal to him. Right. But by and large, you know, the voters that we're mostly talking about here, especially in Philly, are Puerto Rican. And while, yes, this trend has applied to Latino men writ large, Puerto Ricans have shown to be less likely to be switching to the GOP. And that is because Puerto Ricans, unlike other Latino voters that we talk about, have deeper ties to the Democratic Party. And again, they're not immigrants like other Latinos are. I talked to this guy, Rafael Collazo, with UnidosUS, who is based in Philadelphia, and he says there are some historical reasons why Puerto Ricans in Philly have these deeper ties to the Democratic Party. You know, our vote was almost all Puerto Rican until fairly recently. And then that was, you know, we were traditional big city, New York adjacent, urban Latino Democrats, you know.

So in the initial, you know, the initial families that came here, they were in labor unions. They were, you know, so in the initial, you know, the initial families that came here, they were in labor unions, they were, you know, they were big city Democrats. So the orientation for the Latino voters at that time was more homogenous and more Democrat. And, you know, we live in a city that's Philadelphia, still seven to one Democrats or Republicans in terms of registration. Yeah. And folks on the ground say like, this is where Democrats could really just like pick up a lot of votes if they make big investments. Franco, I think that's such an important point because the Latino vote, as with most votes, it's not a monolith. And that the point that Ashley is making that they're Puerto Rican,

it's key here, right? Like when you talk about Latino votes in Florida or Texas or New Mexico, these are very unique experiences to the state and those populations. Yeah. I mean, as a Latino, it's one of the things that I think bugs me the most about U.S. politics is how so often us Latinos are all kind of put into this big one monolithic group. It really drives me nuts because it is so different. I mean, like a Venezuelan, a Colombian, a Cuban American living in Miami votes very much differently than, as you point out, a Mexican-American or someone who migrated from Central America. I mean, it has to do with where you're from, how you came to the country, what are the cultural or political dynamics of the country you have left, your income, you know, your educational, there's just so many different factors that, you know, and I think you're seeing that more.

I mean, you were talking about, and Ashley was talking about how some of these Latinos are moving over to the Republican side that, you know, and everybody's so shocked about it. Well, it's been happening for a long time, just in different places. In South Florida, for example, it's big. And there's also a big difference between second and third generation Americans. I mean, they vote more and more as any other American. As a Cuban from Miami, that is not a shocking trend to me. Well, also, when it comes to Pennsylvania, I think it's fair to say that neither campaign is avoiding the state. It feels like Trump or Vance or Harris or Walls is there constantly. And Tim Walls was just so slim in Pennsylvania that, you know, this is like a place where you could really pick up votes that otherwise, you know, because for a few election cycles now, there's been so much focus on white, rural and working class voters.

And, you know, the fact that there's this other potential part of the electorate, you know, activists are saying, like, just give a little nudge and an attention to this group of voters and, you know, it could pay dividends for you. And this is why Tim Walz was in Allentown. The Harris campaign has also announced like a $3 million Spanish language radio ad buy to play in all of these markets that we've talked to. And I should say, you know, the Trump campaign months ago set up an office in downtown Redding where I visited. And folks there say they've been registering a lot of voters and like talking to folks. So they've also been making investments there. But, you know, I will say overall, I've heard from folks on the ground that considering the amount of opportunity that there is there, especially on the Democratic side, they're not seeing quite the flood of resources that you

would expect at this point. That's pretty surprising. Franco, sort of on the other end of the organizing spectrum, there's Nevada, where Democrats do have a pretty well-organized and well-established get-out-the-vote operation. No question. I find Nevada very fascinating because of that kind of get-out-the-vote machinery. I mean, basically, they have the culinary workers union there, and they just do so much on-the-ground canvassing. They are knocking on doors relentlessly. I mean, Nevada is a state that really is, you know, just kind of getting more red because of the issues that we have been talking about. You know, a lot of concern about the economy. You know, Nevada was hit very hard

during the COVID years. It suffered some of the worst unemployment for a long time because people just weren't traveling. They weren't going on vacation. They weren't gambling. They've tried to replicate it, but you just don't see it. They actually let the Culinary Workers Union, they let these staffers, these service workers, cooks, cleaners, food servers, they let them get off. They take a leave of absence to go knock on doors. They are knocking on hundreds of thousands of doors over the span of a few months before the election. And they actually just started doing that for this election cycle. And they're canvassing for Kamala Harris and the other Democrats in the race. And, you know, I was talking to one of the leaders of the Culinary Workers Union and said, Nevada should be

Trump country. It is Trump country. It should go to Trump if the election were today that Trump would win. But because this has started to kickstart this machinery that they think Harris has a very good shot. And a plurality, if not a majority of the workers in the Culinary Workers Union are Latino. Yeah, absolutely. 60% of those workers in the Culinary Workers Union are Latino. Yeah, absolutely. 60% of those workers in the Culinary Union are Latino. One in five voters in the state of Nevada are Latino. So to kind of just juxtapose what Ashley was saying about Pennsylvania, Latinos are a big force in Nevada. I would argue one of the most consequential groups who may decide who is

actually going to be in the Oval Office. And this is the stage of the campaign where this is just grind until Election Day. And I think that this is where Democrats have had a structural advantage in a state like Nevada in recent elections. And they're winning by like half a percent, one point. I mean, it's really on the margins. But when you talk about a lot undecided voters or low propensity voters, a lot of them are the kind of workers that would work in something like a casino in Las Vegas, maybe not hyper plugged into the political environment, might otherwise. A lot of workers don't get a chance to take off on election day to go vote. Their union makes it as easy as possible to vote, pays for them, they get paid time off to go vote, and then hands them a piece of paper that says, hey,

here are all the candidates your union has endorsed. You know, if they're no longer undecided. So, you know, what I think is really interesting is that, like, you know, when I was in Pennsylvania, you know, talk about a structural advantage in just having unions that have connections to these voters that campaigns historically do not. Because when I was in Philadelphia, you know, I just kind of stumbled upon an SEIU meeting where they flew in dozens of their members from all over the country, including Puerto Rico, to come in and talk to voters in Puerto Rican neighborhoods, because campaigns do not have the sort of language and cultural acumen that like their workers do to talk to these voters. And it was just it's just sort of amazing that like, you know, the the the big advantage that Democrats have is like they don't need to organize quite as quickly because they have unions who.

And by the way, SEIU was obviously knocking on doors for Kamala Harris, and it was happening pretty quickly. And I mean, it was all happening in Spanish too. So, I mean, I think it's just like really interesting that like, you know, the unions themselves are like this big advantage that start getting ramped up now. Because I'm telling you, it was like, they're like, we're starting in Pennsylvania, but we're going to Wisconsin next, and we're going to be talking to Spanish-speaking voters there. So, I mean, I think that's going to be really interesting to watch in the next few weeks. I mean, I'm going to be very interested to see, you know, what, you know, we were talking about how big of an impact these unions have had over past election cycles. I'm very curious to see if they will continue to have that huge impact, considering how Trump has made a very serious play for working class Americans,

for union workers. I mean, his target market are those same, you know, cooks, cleaners, carpenters, mechanics, firefighters, school teachers. You know, this is an area that he is really trying to dig into. And he's made some headways. Republican leaders in Nevada were telling me in Nevada that there's a big difference between the opinions of the leaders of the union and the workers themselves. And they're definitely trying to push those buttons as best they can. All right, Ashley, you stand by. We're going to have you back in a little bit for Can't Let It Go. See you, Ashley.

Sounds good. All right, let's take a quick. We're going to have you back in a little bit for Can't Let It Go. See you, Ashley. Sounds good. All right, let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. And we're back and NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales is here. Hello, friend. Hi there. So Congress this week weighed in with a report looking back at the Secret Service and how they handled the assassination attempt against Donald Trump at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Claudia, what did it say? Right. The Senate released their report. It's kind of an interim report because they're still investigating. And this is the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that issued their findings. And they show that there was a multiple series of failures by the Secret Service. They said this was an

inexcusable dereliction of duty. And a lot of this really came down to that initial planning that allowed this shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, to access the roof for this business that was located in the rally that was really a blind spot in the end that allowed the shooter to get as close as he did to former President Donald Trump and this assassination attempt. What did the Secret Service not do that Congress said they should have done there? So what we're hearing from both sides is they didn't do enough planning on the front end. They didn't delegate enough for local police to become their partners when they land in a particular city with a protectee, as in the case of Trump's rally in Butler that day, July 13th. And they didn't make enough plans in terms of telling local police, listen, we need to cover this area outside of our immediate perimeter. And so they didn't have enough people there and they didn't have them covering them. They weren't in the immediate bubble in terms of what Secret Service was covering

to make sure they could stop the shooter who came up as a suspicious person multiple times before he was able to fire. I think the term catastrophic failure has been used to describe what happened that day against the Secret Service. But it's also a reminder that this agency has been pretty beleaguered. There's been a fair number of high-profile Secret Service failures in recent years. Yeah, I found it interesting that the acting director of the U.S. Secret Service even went so far to say that they need a complete overhaul of how it protects presidents and that there needed to be a paradigm shift. I mean, basically saying that they needed to be a paradigm shift. I mean, basically saying that they needed to get out of kind of like this reactive model and towards more of a readiness model.

Because, Claudia, part of the issue here is the question of resources. But from my understanding is not only did the Secret Service have a ton of resources, but they've also just been given more resources by Congress as well. Right. For example, this past week, Congress passed this stopgap funding measure, and it included some existing Secret Service funds that were to be delivered later, but they fast-tracked this money. But even that was a struggle in terms of getting that over to the Secret Service in this bill that was passed this week, because there's a lot of questions about this paradigm shift that Franco mentions. What does that look like? And when I've talked to

folks for the Secret Service, this is what they emphasize again and again, that this is going to be a dramatic reimagining of how the agency does its job. They do have other duties. For example, they investigate money-related fraud. And then there's these other issues in terms of the limitations they have. They don't have air support, for example. And so when we talk about whole-of-government protection, we see that for President Biden, but you don't see that for anyone else, because the Department of Defense is not involved in the protection of these other protectees. And so there's a whole long list of things that need to be considered now for how this agency can be reimagined, but very little time to do it one by the election to by the end of this year, or this congressional session. And three, for a lot of folks to make significant impact for the agency in time for a new administration next year.

Franco, though, there is a sense of urgency around this, again, because there was a second failed, thankfully, assassination attempt against Donald Trump recently just at his own golf course in Mar-a-Lago. The attention on this has just kind of blown up. And, you know, you guys were talking about some of the extra resources. And on the ground, on the campaign trail, you can see the numbers increasing. I mean, Trump, he's surrounded by more people. I mean, he even said that his life has completely changed because he talks about being surrounded by more men, more guns and weapons than he's ever seen. And you do see that there's more Secret Service agents kind of around him when he gets off his plane, especially at the rope lines, you know, when he greets supporters after rallies. I mean, they are, you know, the campaign says that they are working with intelligence officials as well as law enforcement agencies across different agencies. So they're definitely taking more

steps. You can definitely see it. And I think it just brings kind of like what is already a very tense election to another level. Yeah. Didn't they bring one of his outdoor rallies indoors? For a while, he stopped doing outdoor rallies. And then when he returned a few weeks ago, he's been speaking behind protective glass. All right, Franco, thank you so much for everything this week. You're free to go. Thank you so much. Enjoy your weekend. Claudia, you stick around. And when we get back, it's time for Can't Let It Go. And we're back and Ashley Lopez is back with us. Hello, friend. Hey there. And it is time for Can't Let It Go, the part of the show where we talk about the things from the

week. We can't stop thinking about politics or otherwise. Claudia, what can't you let go of this week? Well, I finally crossed an item off my bucket list. It's been there for a few years, and that was to go to a Virginia Tech football game. Oh, congrats. Thank you. So I would argue they have the best opener in college football. And basically, have you guys seen this, by the way? No, I know nothing about Virginia Tech football.

I'm so happy to tell you, and now you have to go. But basically, the opener is the Metallica song, Enter Sandman. Okay. And it's like this guitar starts, and you're getting so pumped to start jumping, and then you're just screaming the lyrics of this song, and you're losing your mind. I tried to do a video of it, but half of it's missing, because I was jumping like a crazy insane woman in the stands. Now, unfortunately, the team is struggling. So they did not do as good as I would have hoped. But I will say I think Virginia Tech is like one of my new favorite teams. And the other cool thing is Metallica is coming to

Virginia Tech in May of next year. I already got my concert tickets. It's going to be the first time the band goes to Blacksburg. And so it's like this incredible relationship between Tech and Metallica. And I can't wait to go back. And me. Yeah, so that's my Can't Let It Go. Sue, what is your Can't let it go? My can't let it go falls firmly into politics this week because it was the indictment of New York City Mayor Eric Adams that got me this week. Contained within the 57 page indictment detailing the charges of corruption against him. He's broadly accused of taking bribes and other things from officials in the Turkish government. But part of the reason why I can't let it go is how, frankly, stupid some of the mistakes were made in the course of charging him with corruption. And the two examples that I just love are one of his aides, when they voluntarily go in to talk to the FBI, I think they start to realize like, uh-oh, they're onto us. And they go into the bathroom and delete apps on their phone, the messaging apps, like thinking that that's going to stop the FBI.

And my favorite thing in the indictment is that at one point when they went to the mayor to get his cell phone, because they believed there was evidence of corruption on there, and they said, hey, give us your cell phone. And he was like, I forgot my pin. I know. Very convenient. I have a media. Sorry, FBI. I forgot my password. You can't indict me. You know, he, of course, FBI. I forgot my password. You can indict me.

You know, he, of course, he has pled not guilty in court. He has denied all wrongdoing. But I would say this goes to, like, a larger point that I always try to make to people about politics and government. You'd be more shocked how poorly and dumb government is run than by how sophisticated and these deep, dark webs of intrigue. And I'm like, honestly, a lot of it's just staffers texting the crimes and then being shocked that they get arrested. Ashley, what about you? What can't you let go of? Well, what I can't let go of this week is this story about comedian John Mulaney.

So according to the San Francisco Standard, yeah, he's great. He was invited to do this corporate gig for Salesforce last week for this conference that was being billed as the biggest AI event in the world, which, you know, grown. And instead of phoning it in and just doing his usual bits and stand-up routine, Mulaney spent a lot of his time roasting the people attending this conference last week. And it is glorious. I implore people to read some bits from that. I'm not going to like, you know, do his jokes and butcher them because that feels wrong. They really are good. And so you should just read them. But I love this because like, I think comedy is at its best when it's punching up. And man, oh man, the tech world could use some humbling. And that is exactly what John Mulaney delivered as he mocked their little like fleece vests and silly sounding job titles. It just made me so, so happy. What I couldn't figure out, Ashley, was the crowd. Did you get any sense of whether they were in on the joke or were they mad? I read about the roasting, but I didn't see much about the reception.

Maybe they loved it. Maybe they thought it was hilarious. Or they walked out. I don't know. So reading it, it sounded like they were groaning through some of his jokes, like they were notaning through some of his jokes, like they were, you know, not loving being roasted. But, you know, I also caught some clips on TikTok of his routine and people were laughing. So I think it's a mixed bag. I think it depends when in the when in the routine you kind of like were jumping in.

All right. If you were at the Dreamforce convention, you know, hit us up on Facebook. Yeah. All right. That is a wrap for us this week. Our executive producer is Mithoni Matori. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our producers are Jung Yoon Han, Casey Morrell, and Kelly Wessinger. Special thanks to Andrew Sussman. I'm Susan Davis. I cover politics.

I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover voting. And I'm Claudia Grisales, and I cover Congress. And thanks for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.