With less than 100 days to the presidential elections, undecided Latino voters in Reading, Pennsylvania, a small town part of the so-called "Latino Belt" for its prominent Hispanic population, are weighing in on who to cast their ballots for, Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump.
The population in Reading is 67% Latino, making it a key town for both candidates as they seek to win Pennsylvania, a battleground state, in November.
In 2020, Joe Biden won the state by 80,000 votes; that same year, more than 610,000 Latinos were eligible to vote in the state. However, while Biden won Reading by about 46 points in 2020, Trump saw a 15-point gain there compared to 2016.
Because of this, both campaigns are starting to invest resources in the state. Last month, Latino Americans for Trump touted the opening of a Trump campaign office in Reading, while the Biden and now Harris campaign told NBC News it has 24 offices throughout the state.
The efforts may be reaching undecided Latinos' minds, who wonder who is the best option to cast their ballots for.
For instance, brothers and barbers Samuel and David Delacruz told NBC News that lately, the talk of the town is politics, which has energized them to vote in November.
While they are both undecided, the current developments in the American political landscape— which includes Trump's failed assassination attempt and Harris stepping up to the Democratic ticket— came as a surprise that will raise the stakes for the rest of the election season.
"Wow. It's been exciting. It's been such an unexpected change," Samuel Delacruz said of the historic events. He said Harris "has direction, and it evens the playing field between the two candidates."
Similarly, Jamell Garcia, 18, a student at the brothers' Berks Barber School, will be voting in his first elections. He said he wasn't sure who he was voting for yet, and he was feeling "kind of nervous" about the prospect of casting his ballot for one of the presidential candidates.
Garcia is one of millions of Latinos who will enter the election scene in 2024. According to a UnidosUS study, 1 out of 5 Latino voters this year will be casting ballots for the first time, with independent voters making up the majority of this group.
"New voters are the most potent source," said Clarissa Martinez De Castro, Vice President of the UnidosUS Latino Vote Initiative. "Latino voters have often been taken for grants, and that has been reflected in the levels of outreach and investment they receive. These findings put an even greater exclamation point on the need for candidates and parties to engage these voters early and meaningfully if they want to win over their support."
As the Democratic National Convention nears, Latino voters in the state are also anxiously waiting on who Harris will pick to be her running mate, as Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro is one of the favorites to step up to the ticket since his nomination could further energize voters in the battleground state.
"People who are not very invested in the election will tend to follow somebody that they trust," Tanya Melendez, a Puerto Rican voter in Pennsylvania argued about why Shapiro should be Harris' running mate.
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