More than 60% of Latino voters in Pennsylvania support Vice President Kamala Harris after a right-wing comedian called Puerto Rico an "island of garbage" at Donald Trump's Madison Square Garden rally last week, a new YouGov/Univision poll found
Outrage and offence rippled through the battleground state's Puerto Rican population after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke about the U.S. territory. Some 69% of poll respondents considered the comments to be "more racist than humorous," while 71% of of Puerto Ricans felt the comments pointed to racism within Trump's campaign.
“This was just like a gift from the gods,” Victor Martinez, a Spanish-language radio host in Allentown, Pennsylvania told Politico last week. “If we weren’t engaged before, we’re all paying attention now."
The comment was a reminder of Trump’s already fraught and hostile history with Puerto Rico. Though the former president's campaign has tried to distance him from Hinchcliffe's joke, The Bulwark suggests the campaign vetted the comedian's remarks.
Pennsylvania is home to 472,000 Puerto Ricans. For Harris, Hinchcliffe’s remark was an opportunity to gain support among a constituency she has struggled with throughout her campaign. Though Latino voters have historically aligned with Democrats, Trump has made headway with the group this year, according to polling, particularly among Puerto Rican men.
Democrats spent the election homestretch targeting Puerto Rican and Latino voters in the swing state. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortex, D-N.Y., who is of Puerto Rican descent, reminded voters of Trump’s racist history at an event in Philadelphia on Sunday.
“This is not just about Puerto Ricans. This is about how Trump treats everybody. It’s about how he treats Black Americans, about how he treats women, about how he treats working-class people,” she told the majority Latino crowd.
On Monday afternoon, Harris will host a rally in Allentown. Trump too will spend the final day of his campaign in Pennsylvania, holding a rally in the city of Reading.
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