President Joe Biden visited Phoenix on Tuesday in hopes of rallying the support of Arizona’s Latino community as voters statewide cast their ballots in the Presidential Preference Election.
As part of a three-day tour through Arizona and Nevada, Biden visited South Phoenix Mexican restaurant El Portal to connect with Arizona’s Latino community and reaffirm his hope for the nation if reelected in November.
President Joe Biden visited Phoenix on Tuesday in hopes of rallying the support of Arizona’s Latino community as voters statewide cast their ballots in the Presidential Preference Election.
As part of a three-day tour through Arizona and Nevada, Biden visited South Phoenix Mexican restaurant El Portal to connect with Arizona’s Latino community and reaffirm his hope for the nation if reelected in November.
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Although Biden won the majority of Hispanic votes in 2020, Donald Trump earned more votes from Latinos in 2020 than he did in 2016, according to an analysis by Pew Research. In hopes of garnering the united support of Hispanic communities nationwide, the Biden campaign launched its “Latinos con Biden-Harris” program.
“Because we turned out in 2020, we achieved the lowest unemployment rate for Latinos in a long time,” Biden told attendees. “We made historic investments in Latino small businesses, and we addressed gun violence in the communities.”
Biden also took direct aim at Trump, reminding the crowd about how he has denigrated Latinos from the very start of his first campaign in 2015.
“In 2016, he called Latinos ‘criminals,’ ‘drug dealers’ and ‘rapists,’” Biden said. “Now he says immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country’… What the hell is he talking about? The reason we are as good as we are is because we are the most diverse country in the world.”
Biden continued, saying that Trump only aims to serve the wealthy, as he cited a quote from a speech Trump gave at his private Mar-a-Lago club back in December, where he promised tax cuts to wealthy attendees.
“That’s the last thing I’ll do,” Biden said, reiterating his plans to impose a 25% tax on wealthy Americans worth more than $100 million.
And as he stands firm on his plans to bring equity back to the American tax system, Biden told attendees that he plans to protect systems like Social Security and Medicare — while Trump is doing damage control after repeatedly suggesting he will cut those programs.
Biden also highlighted his campaign manager Julia Chávez Rodriguez, granddaughter of famed labor activist and Yuma native Cesar Chavez, as a pillar in his administration that “looks like America” — a promise made back on the campaign trail to diversify the cabinet to better serve America’s marginalized communities.
Biden, Trump win virtually uncontested Arizona primaries
Arizona Democrats and Republicans headed to the polls on Tuesday for the presidential preference election, and both won handily.
In the Democratic primary, President Joe Biden won nearly 90% of the vote. His closest competitor was Marianne Williamson, who nabbed about 3.5%.
On the Republican side, Donald Trump captured just 76% of the vote. More than 20% of GOP voters cast a ballot for Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who dropped out of the race earlier this month.
Both Biden and Trump have already secured the nominations for their respective parties, and will face off again in a rematch of the 2020 election. Biden narrowly won Arizona four years ago, edging Trump by about 11,000 votes.
This story first appeared in AZ Mirror.
