Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will appear on two separate town halls hosted by Univision in October. The announcement comes as Trump continues to decline a second presidential debate with his opponent.
Both events will take place next month, the former President's slot will take place in Miami, Florida and will air Oct. 8 at 10 pm ET, while Harris' will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will air Oct. 10 10 at 10 pm ET. Both appearances will be hosted by journalist Enrique Acevedo. During both events, undecided Hispanic voters will ask questions to each candidate directly.
"The events will put an electorate that represents close to 15% of the voting bloc front and center, creating a forum exclusively for Latinos," Univision said in a statement.
The two sessions will stream in English on Noticias Univision's YouTube channel. They'll also air with Spanish-language translation on Univision and stream on ViX's Noticias 24/7 channel.
The recent announcements underscore the importance of Latino voters in deciding who the next President of the U.S. will be.
"There are more than 36 million Hispanics eligible to vote in the U.S., making them the largest minority in the country, with the power to influence the outcome of the race for the White House and the future of the nation," Daniel Coronell, president of Noticias Univision, said in a statement.
The town halls may serve as one of the last times in which undecided voters will get to compare the two candidates, given that the former President continues insisting that he will not engage in a second debate with the Vice President.
On Saturday, the Harris campaign announced that she had accepted an invitation from CNN to participate in a second presidential debate in October. In a social media post, Harris said she had "gladly" accepted the network's invitation for an Oct. 23 face-off, adding that she hoped Trump would join her.
The post was part of a public effort by the Harris campaign that also included statements announcing her decision issued by Brian Fallon, a campaign spokesman, and Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, the campaign chair, The New York Times reports.
"The American people deserve another opportunity to see Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump debate before they cast their ballots," O'Malley Dillon said in her statement. "It would be unprecedented in modern history for there to just be one general election debate."
But Trump once again declined, claiming he won his debate with Harris— despite the vast majority of voters saying otherwise— and blaming timing. "The problem with another debate is that's just too late," he said. "Voting has already started."
Despite his reasonings, the final debate during his 2020 campaign was on Oct. 22.
The race for the White House is currently considered a toss-up. But as Nov. 5 quickly approaches, both candidates are seeking to appeal to the undecided Latino vote.
Hispanics have historically voted Democrat, but in recent years, they have seemed to move to the right, with their support of Trump increasing throughout the years. This cycle, however, Harris seems to have attracted them right back into the camp.
A new poll by Pew Research shows that a majority of Latino registered voters (57%) say they would vote for the Vice President and only 39% would do the same for Trump.
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