Harris hosts rally in Las Vegas as Nevada becomes crucial swing state in election | US elections 2024

Kamala Harris held a rally in Las Vegas on Sunday evening as the six-electoral vote state becomes increasingly important in a presidential race that polls show is barely trending in favor of either candidate.

Both the vice president and Donald Trump frequently travel to Nevada, but Harris' rally comes two days after her visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, a sensitive issue for Democrats that Harris wants to defuse.

Addressing the raucous crowd in Las Vegas, estimated at 7,500, Harris repeated her jibes at Trump for refusing another debate, saying: “The American people have a right to have us debate the issues.” And like you here in Las Vegas say: I'm totally into it. I’m all in.”

Harris expressed her condolences to those affected by Hurricane Helene and announced in her campaign that she would visit affected areas as soon as it did not disrupt the emergency response to the storm that hit the southeast of the country.

“We will stand with these communities for as long as necessary to ensure they can recover and rebuild,” Harris said Sunday.

On Friday, Harris walked along a towering, rust-colored border wall lined with razor wire in Douglas, Arizona, and met with federal authorities to discuss illegal border crossings and fentanyl smuggling.

At a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, the former president tried to blame Harris for the opioid epidemic. “She even wants to legalize fentanyl,” he said.

According to the Pew Research Center, six in 10 Americans rate immigration as “very important,” and other polls suggest voters trust Trump can tackle the issue more effectively than Harris.

In contrast, less than half of voters (40%) said abortion, Republicans' biggest vulnerability, was a very important issue for their vote.

Speaking in San Francisco on Saturday, Harris said the “race is as close as it could be” and described it as “a race with a margin of error.” The Democratic candidate added that she felt like she was running as an outsider.

Democrats have also begun testing a new strategy to appeal to younger voters, including visitors to Las Vegas, long known for drunkenness, with posts about what they say is the so-called “Trump tequila tax.” could come as a result of the proposed import tariffs.

Harris' campaign breakthrough in Las Vegas comes as both candidates have announced they want to eliminate taxes on tips. Trump presented his proposal in the city in June; Harris used her own rally in August to make the same promise.

The issue concerns Las Vegas, where around 60,000 hotel workers are employed. Nevada's Culinary Union has endorsed Harris.

Ted Pappageorge, the culinary union's secretary-treasurer, told the Associated Press that the union supports Harris' proposal because it is committed to addressing what his union calls “subminimum wage.”

“It shows us she’s serious,” Pappageorge said.

Trump was at the same Las Vegas venue where Harris spoke earlier this month. In this speech, he called his opponent the “invading president-to-be.”