Trump wins over Latino voters during last-minute visit to New Mexico

Thousands of people watched former President Donald Trump speak Thursday at an Albuquerque airport hangar. It was a late visit to a state he is unlikely to win, but where his supporters gave him a cheerful welcome.

With polls showing New Mexico unlikely to participate in the presidential election, the former president challenged the crowd to prove the predictions wrong. He touched on familiar topics such as the border and gas price inflation and enthusiastically praised Latino communities.

The rally was announced only on Sunday, and after days of struggling with parking and locationTrump supporters had to park far away, take buses, walk and stand in long lines. Many of them weren’t bothered one bit.

“It’s great,” said Jose Hernandez, a small business owner from Albuquerque who was buying a shirt from a stand that sold MAGA hats in all colors and gold sneakers.

“A lot of people are really happy he’s here. We talked to a lot of people in line and everything. So everyone is delighted.”

Like many people here today, he is a New Mexican of Hispanic descent, from a district that has traditionally voted Democratic. He switched parties, as did Tomas Hernandez, no relation as far as KUNM knows, who stood in line with a Trump flag and two Trump hats.

“I came from a family of Democrats and was indoctrinated to vote Democratic,” he said. He believes that the party helped his parents get out of poverty. “I grew up as a Chicano in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I saw the policies that the Democrats put in place when we were growing up.”

He believes that now it is much more difficult for people to rise economically. When asked what the biggest issue in this election was, he, like many others, named the border and fentanyl smuggling in particular.

“My daughter died from fentanyl,” he said. “And I’ve had several family friends who have had experiences where someone in their family has overdosed or become addicted to this fentanyl.”

And he blames the current administration.

“Border king, comrade Kamala, she didn’t do anything to us there.”

Inside the hangar, as the crowd waited for the main event, they heard speakers including Myron Leeser, former vice president of the Navajo Nation, who delivered a note of unity.

“There is an Indian proverb. It says that the left and right wing belong to the same bird,” he said.

And the Republican candidate for the state election most competitive congressional districtYvette Herrell, spoke. The 2nd Congressional District in the south of the state is nearly 60% Latino, and she is running against Mexican-American Democrat Gabe Vazquez. She touched on her recurring topics: transgender athletes, border security and immigration.

“When you vote to allow men to play women’s sports, when you don’t protect parents’ rights, when you call a wall disrespectful and a waste of money, when you allow illegals to vote in our elections, not once, but twice. “, she said.

According to research conducted Brennan Center for Justice and investigations such as an audit of Georgia voter rolls this year.

As the former president arrived, landing against the backdrop of the rugged Sandia Mountains and perfect blue skies, he told the crowd why he came so close to the election.

“I’m here for one simple reason. I really like you and it’s good for my reputation in the Hispanic or Latino community,” he said.

He asked whether people in New Mexico preferred the term “Hispanic” or “Latino” and welcomed Latinos.

“First of all, Latinos love Trump,” he said, noting that they are “entrepreneurial.”

“But you have to get the record number of votes we need to really demand a better future. And you must go out. You must vote. We want to win, win, win.”

He’s all but admitted he’s unlikely to win state

“They all said: don’t come. I asked why? You can’t win in New Mexico. I said, “Look, your votes are rigged. We can win in New Mexico. We can win in New Mexico.”

He made many false claims, including that he had won the state twice before. He didn’t, and New Mexico’s 2022 election was ranked the best in the country by MIT Election Performance Index.

Accompanying the somber note was a video of the mother of a 12-year-old girl killed earlier this year in Houston. allegedly two undocumented men from Venezuela.

“At Kamala, New Mexico saw millions of people cross your portion of the southern border,” he said. Customs and Border Protection Reports nearly half a million encounters at the New Mexico border since the start of fiscal year 2021.

Trump used familiar language – “tough hombres” – to describe immigrants and cited the figure of 13,099 as the number of killers who crossed the border during the last administration. The Department of Homeland Security said it was misrepresenting that figure. and that it goes back decades.

He also mentioned that immigrants are flooding cities with deadly drugs. but most people are arrested for smuggling fentanyl American citizens have arrived in the country, according to KPBS in California.

Among the few people from Latin America and other countries who came out, his message resonated. Lisa Parsons comes from an old New Mexico family.

“It’s great that he recognizes us and all cultures, not just one-sided culture, but many cultures, that’s what he’s addressing,” she said.

Amid long lines and closed roads, there were no major protests, but Joel Hernandez of the Party of Socialism and Liberation told KUNM that he led about 40 people to a demonstration nearby. They chanted against deportations and war and said some Trump supporters had insulted them, but there was no confrontation.