For more than a decade, former President Donald J. Trump fueled his political rise with dark appeals to white Christian voters, immigrants seeking jobs and nefarious efforts to undermine what he called the country’s true heritage. I have been warned.
Now facing a close race with the first Black woman to win her party’s nomination, Trump is looking to widen the field.
He has repeatedly accused immigrants of taking “black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs,” which labor statistics show is inaccurate. He told Latino voters in Las Vegas that illegal immigration was “completely destroying the Hispanic population.” He promised the women of Pennsylvania that he would “be their protector” and that they would “never again feel abandoned, alone, or afraid.” That oath is based on the far-fetched premise that there are criminals lurking around every corner who also happen to be immigrants.
There are frequent complaints that left-wing politicians are dividing the country through “identity politics,” but in this election campaign he has made the clearest identity-based arguments possible, convincing voters to support his policies. It looks like Mr. Trump is there.
“He appealed to black voters and Latino voters more explicitly than most previous candidates, pitting different identity groups against each other,” said Michael Tessler, a political science professor at the University of California, Irvine. The book is about how Trump wields white identity politics. “There is a common complaint that “I am not receiving my fair share.”
Many of Trump’s frank and earnest appeals have been met with accusations and even ridicule for clumsily bringing up race, gender and religion. But this final heated contest also represents a remarkable effort to expand the tent of economic, racial and cultural grievances that propelled him to the White House eight years ago.
Trump has gained support from black and Latino voters by pitting them against illegal immigrants, whom he has long blamed for a host of economic, public safety, national security and social problems. trying to get it. He blames the influx of illegal immigrants, who he claims were allowed into the country by the Biden administration, for voters’ economic dissatisfaction.
Appeals to parts of the American electorate have been a part of presidential elections for decades, often intertwined with shifts in racial and gender politics. In 1960, John F. Kennedy campaigned in Harlem, promising to advance civil rights. Almost half a century later, George W. Bush peppered his campaign speeches from Iowa to California with Texas-inspired Spanish.
But Trump’s foray into such targeted campaigning goes far beyond traditional political pursuits at black churches and taco stands.
In 2016, Trump focused on hard-working and “forgotten” Americans. The term has historically been used to refer to white working-class voters. Four years later, he embraced the touchstones of white supremacy, defending Confederate monuments and warning against violent Black Lives Matter protesters invading white suburbs.
But in what is expected to be a close race, chipping away at even a point or two of Harris’ advantage over a group that overwhelmingly tends to support Democrats could be crucial, he said. That’s what the camp’s aides are thinking.
“This is a matter of inches,” said James Blair, the Trump campaign’s political director. “It’s about the marginal benefits of different populations in different states.”
As a result, the message can sometimes feel incongruous.
Trump is likely to emphasize his signature criminal justice reform law, the First Step Act, as he addresses Black voters. At other events, he will call for a return to “stop-and-frisk” policing strategies that have been found to disproportionately target black and Latino men. At an event held at a black church in Detroit aimed at promoting his work, a large percentage of the crowd was white.
He also brings black and Hispanic musicians to the stage at rallies as part of his efforts to court new surrogates, an effort that is sometimes awkward. In Las Vegas last month, Trump apparently read his remarks from a script and gave a shoutout to male reggaeton star Nicky Jam, who was in attendance. “Do you know Nicky?” he asked the crowd. “She’s hot. Where’s Nicki?” Trump looked a little confused when Nicky Jam took the stage.
In Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rican rapper Anuel AA endorsed Trump in front of a large white audience, which Trump acknowledged. “I don’t know if these people know who the hell you are, but it’s good for the Puerto Rican vote,” he said. “Every Puerto Rican is going to vote for Trump right now. We accept.”
In an effort to win over Jewish voters from the Democratic Party, he has argued that Israel would not exist if he was not elected. And even though he is trying to win over the roughly 700,000 Jewish voters in battleground states, he preemptively denounces them, saying that if they lose, “there will be a lot of work to do.”
Those who have watched Trump for decades say such proposals are rooted in efforts to pit various groups against each other.
“The Donald always appeals to his dark side,” said Alan Marcus, a consultant who worked for the Trump Organization in the 1990s and is an opponent of the former president. “He deals in hate. If he can make you hate something, he gains.”
Trump campaign aides are targeting Black and Latino voters across battleground states, with local events ranging from offering free haircuts at campaign offices in Pennsylvania to small business roundtables in Georgia and Nevada. He said he was hosting the event.
Bianca Rodriguez, the Trump campaign’s director of Hispanic communications, said their efforts build on the president’s vision of improving the quality of life for Hispanic Americans, “many of whom are struggling under the Biden-Harris administration.” He said it was something to share.
The Harris campaign says it has carried out much larger and longer-lasting relief efforts in these communities through field operations that began nearly a year ago. On Wednesday, he launched “Hombres con Harris,” an initiative targeting Latino men in battleground states.
They dismiss Trump’s overtures as divisive and even hateful.
“People are tired, tired of lies, tired of selfishness, tired of attempts to divide us as Americans, and ready to turn the page and draw a new graph. I think we’ve got that going,’ moving forward,” Harris said in an interview on “The View” on Tuesday.
At other times, they have sought to turn Trump’s own words into powerful attacks against him.
“Who would tell him that the job he’s looking for right now might just be one of those ‘black jobs’?” At the Democratic National Convention in August, former first lady Michelle Obama drew thunderous applause. He said this while taking a bath.
There are early signs that Trump may be having some success. Polls show he has gained support among Latino and Black voters since 2020, a shift that threatens to weaken the multiracial coalition that has long been the bedrock of Democratic victories.
The exact level of his support is difficult to gauge. Mr. Trump has clearly targeted what campaign strategists call “low-intensity” voters, especially groups of black and Latino men who are less likely to regularly show up and vote.
But strategists say it’s the small movements of voters that are difficult to track that decide races.
“The most important voters are the ones we know the least about,” said Carlos Odio, founder of Equis, a Democratic-leaning research group focused on Latino voters. “The remaining question we have at this point is: Can President Trump draw on the pro-Trump Latino irregular vote in the same way as working-class white men?”
