From the Rat Pack to Elvis, from fight night to the Sphere, Las Vegas serves up spectacle bigger and brasher than anywhere else. On Thursday the political circus came to Sin City as the US presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump held duelling campaign rallies here.
The events offered a tight focus on the contrast at the heart of next week’s election. Harris’s rally was a joyful affair, with mothers carrying infants on their shoulders, some supporters and volunteers sporting Halloween costumes and star turns by Mexican band Maná and Latina singer and actor Jennifer Lopez.
Trump’s gaudy pageant warmed up with the sound of Elvis warbling about Dixieland and James Brown’s It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World. His crowd sported Make America great again caps and other regalia, cheered his demonisation of immigrants, jeered the “fake news” media and broke into chants of “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
Even in Las Vegas, a city of escapism, bleary eyed gamblers who stagger out of casinos are confronted by the reminders of the presidential contest: Trump’s name is emblazoned on his five-star luxury hotel, while the Harris campaign took out a campaign ad on the giant $2.3bn attraction the Sphere.
The rivals are drawn to Nevada because it is one seven swing states expected to play a decisive role in the all-important electoral college. It is also about 30% Latino, a demographic that traditionally favours Democrats but where Trump appears to be making inroads this time.
Las Vegas is booming again with sold out shows, a thriving airport and a Formula One grand prix later this month. But the rest of Nevada is in tough times. The jobless rate in August was 5.5%, higher than any other state, while gas prices are well above the national average – issues that Trump has sought to exploit.
Harris’s rally was staged in a park in the open air against the backdrop of a “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign and attracted a diverse mix across age and race, including young families. There were chants of “We’re not going back!” Among the speakers was congresswoman Susie Lee, who observed: “I’ve seen some scary costumes today but none of them come close to how scary a Donald Trump presidency would be.”
Lopez walked out to her track Let’s Get Loud before she gave an emotional 13-minute speech on “the most important stage I’ve ever been on”.
She made reference to Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally where US comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made disparaging remarks about Puerto Rico and its people, which she said is a reminder of how Trump “really is and how he really feels”.
“It wasn’t just Puerto Ricans that were offended that day, it was every Latino in this country, it was humanity and anyone of decent character,” Lopez said.
She told the crowd “I believe in the power of women” and “I believe in the power of Latinos”. The actor and singer insisted: “There is no candidate in the history of the presidency that is more qualified and there is no job that Kamala Harris can’t do.” She also referred to Trump as “the biggest adversary internally that I think America has ever had”.
Lopez added: “I am an actress and I like Hollywood endings and I like it when the good guy – or in this case the good girl – wins. And with an understanding of our past, and our faith in our future, I will be casting my ballot for Kamala Harris for president of the United States.”
Harris then entered to enthusiastic cheers and delivered a now familiar stump speech. “If he were re-elected, Donald Trump would walk into that office with an enemies list,” she said, “When I am elected, I will walk in with a to-do list … And at the top of my list is bringing down the cost of your living. That will be my focus every single day as president.”
She warned of Trump’s desire to sow division and chaos. She also made fun of him by remarking: “You may have seen I talked in Washington DC the other day. He likes to compare crowd sizes. I had 100,000 people there.”
At another point, when some in the crowd chanted “Lock him up! Lock him up!”, Harris responded: “The courts are going to handle that. We will handle November.”
Earlier, the mood at Trump’s rally at an ice hockey stadium in Henderson, just outside Las Vegas, was less charitable. Warm-up speakers included far-right Florida congressman Matt Gaetz and Nevada Republican chair Michael Mcdonald, who mocked Harris’s laugh and derided Democrats as “beta males”, claiming “We’re alpha males”.
Big screens proclaimed “Better off with Trump” and “Trump will fix it!” Some fans wore yellow vests to resemble garbage collectors, a reference to Joe Biden’s allegedly referring to Trump supporters as “garbage”. The White House has denied this.
“I’d like to start with a very simple question: are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Trump asked. “No!” roared the crowd.
Trump was quick to lambast his opponent. “She is the worst vice-president in the history of our country. Kamala, you’re fired! Get the hell out of here. She is horrible. And she lies. Every time she gets up she tells a lie.”
In an election with a historic gender gap, Trump did little to win over female voters when he unveiled an ominous plan for the vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert Kennedy Jr, who abandoned his own independent candidacy to endorse him.
“Robert F Kennedy Jr we have and he’s going to work on health and women’s health and all of the different reasons, because we’re not really a wealthy or a healthy country,” he said. “That’s why I told Bobby, Bobby, I want you to take care of health.”
The Harris campaign seized on the comment, noting that Kennedy once said he would sign a national abortion ban. But Trump’s supporters seemed untroubled by the prospect.
Kathy Holesapple, 56, an entrepreneur and pilot and aircraft mechanic, said of Democrats: “They’ve weaponised the women against this party but the truth is that they’ve also held down the women in this nation by calling us Karens.
“We’re not allowed to stand up and speak for our beliefs. They call us a Karen every time we speak up. So the American woman needs to stand up – and they will – and they’re going to realise that Trump is for American women. He’s for women all over the world.”
The former president predicted that he would win a record share of the Hispanic vote. “It’s pretty simple: Hispanics want great jobs, they want rising wages and they want safe communities. They’re great people. Energy – they’re very entrepreneurial. I know ’em well, they’re really hard workers, they’re great people.”
Trump hurled insults at Harris, saying she lacked “intellect” or “stamina”, and was a “train wreck” and incapable of running a kindergarten. “I’ve worked for 62 days in a row – I haven’t take a day off,” he said, before claiming of Harris: “She’s exhausted. She’s finished.”
He heaped praise on his billionaire backer Elon Musk, stating: “In terms of computer, I would say he’s probably about as good as you get.” And in a bizarre riff against Democrats, Trump said: “They don’t want windows. They don’t want cows. They don’t want anything. They don’t know what they want, actually.”
Trump’s supporters were confident of victory. Bob Diaz, 69, who is Latino and teaches computer aided drafting and design at a college, said he thinks Trump is doing “a lot better” among Latino voters this time.
“He supports the legal way of getting into the border,” he said. “I’ve had family legally come in. In fact, my mother came in the 1940s and then she eventually became a US citizen but she did it the legal way and the right way, so that’s what I support about Trump: doing it the right way.”
The latest New York Times/Siena poll showed Harris with 52% support among Hispanic voters to Trump’s 42%.
Republicans in Nevada have the edge in early voting so far but, after the Harris rally, Democrats showed a sense of urgency that Trump must be defeated. One woman stopped her car to tell strangers: “Tomorrow get out and tell 10 more people to vote. We can’t have him back!”
Jinnifer Rister, 57, a professional poker player, said: “He frightens me. We need to preserve democracy in this country and the way to do that is by electing Kamala. She is the way forward. She’s bringing new hope, positivity. She’s what we need to do to keep this country on the right track.”
