Four takeaways from Kamala Harris' speech in Las Vegas

As the hotly contested presidential election cycle nears its finish line, Vice President Kamala Harris continued her sweep of battleground states in Las Vegas on Sunday, rallying thousands of attendees to support her economic and immigration policies and urging them to come up with a plan to vote and help Take her “underdog” candidacy too far.

In about 25 minutes of remarks, Harris did not announce any new policies but sought to drum up support for her plans to lower the cost of living and crack down on illegal border crossings, presenting herself as the only candidate in the race with proposals that would benefit Americans would. The economy and immigration are consistently among the top issues for voters across the country, and Harris has been gaining ground lately as he is more trusted to tackle these issues, although persistent inflation in the wake of the pandemic has often undermined the message Democrats on the economy has been affected.

The event was held at the World Market Center in downtown Las Vegas – the same place where former President Donald Trump gathered more than 6,000 supporters two weeks ago. Harris' campaign opened up much more space for Sunday's rally, and more than 7,500 people attended, the campaign said.

It was Harris' second stop in Las Vegas since President Joe Biden abandoned his re-election bid in July. She held a rally at the Thomas & Mack Center last month in front of more than 12,000 people, one of the largest Nevada rallies in modern political history. Harris visited Nevada six times earlier this year, campaigning for President Biden.

Nevada is clearly among the battleground states that could determine the winner of the presidential election, although Harris has repeatedly described herself as an underdog. Polls consistently show a dead heat between Harris and Trump to secure the state's six electoral votes – a reality that left some rally attendees dumbfounded.

“I'm completely amazed every morning when I wake up and see polls where there's a horse race going on,” said Jay Cloetens, a 55-year-old printer technician. “Is this a parody or is this real?” It’s so crazy and yet it could go either way.”

Here are The Indys The most important findings from Sunday's rally.

It's the economy, stupid

Harris spent much of her speech laying out her previously announced plans to stimulate the economy.

She announced proposals to provide $50,000 in tax breaks for small business founders, increase the federal child tax credit from $2,000 to $6,000 for newborns and relax college degree requirements for federal jobs.

The economy is top of mind for voters across the country, but particularly in Las Vegas — a city dominated by the hotel industry that has been ravaged by the pandemic. Nevada's job growth rate since the pandemic ranks first in the nation, but the state's unemployment rate is also near the top, while inflation (which is easing) continues to outpace wage growth, according to data presented by state economists in June.

Because child care costs have risen faster than wages, a recent University of Maryland poll found more than 73 percent of Nevada residents support increasing the child tax credit to $3,600 and making it fully refundable (paid even if a family owes no taxes). , in line with the pandemic-era child tax credits that expired in 2022.

Sin City is also home to a rare source of unity between both candidates: a proposal to eliminate taxes on tips, which Trump first proposed in June and which Harris later supported in August.

Although Harris didn't mention the policy at Sunday's rally, Jasmin Newsom, a 19-year-old College of Southern Nevada student who attended the event, said she supported the policy — but found it irrelevant that Trump was the first to suggest it have.

“But I don’t feel like it means much to us. She just cares about families in general,” Newsom said. “She didn’t grow up in a higher class like Donald Trump, so she sees us lower class people more.”

Helen Coombs, a 68-year-old retiree who recently enrolled in Medicare with her husband, who has diabetes, said the Biden administration's passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which raised monthly insulin prices for Medicare recipients to $35 Dollar limited, is a lifeline for her family.

More living space – but what about federally owned properties?

Last month, Harris unveiled her plan to address the country's affordable housing crisis – which she rehashed on Sunday.

She championed her plan to build three million new housing units nationwide and provide $25,000 in down payment assistance to eligible first-time homebuyers.

“We need to lower the cost of living because even though our economy is doing well in many ways, prices for everyday things like groceries are still too high,” Harris said.

However, missing from Harris' remarks on Sunday and her general housing plan is the topic of releasing federally owned land for residential development. In Nevada, the federal government owns about 86 percent of the land, restricting its development and use, and development of these areas has been supported by both parties: the state's Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, and Democratic members of Congress.

Earlier this month in Las Vegas, Trump vowed to release federally owned lands, declaring that those areas would be subject to “extremely low regulations” – a theme missing from the Nevada lands bills stalled in Congress – and linked the Release of the land with a commitment to grow the state's film industry, although this policy will likely be implemented at the state level, as proposed through tax credits.

Conservationists have argued that any land law should adequately protect the environment, and some critics of releasing federal lands for development have called for less sprawl and more upward development. Developing more land also requires potentially costly infrastructure and could strain or hinder public services in the event of wildfires or other natural disasters.

The focus is on immigration

Two days after she visited a section of the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona and introduced tougher immigration policies, Harris largely stuck to her typical campaign rhetoric on immigration.

Harris' new plan would go beyond the Biden administration's crackdown on illegal border crossings, increasing criminal charges for repeat offenders and requiring asylum claims to be made at ports of entry.

Before becoming vice president, she was a proponent of much tougher immigration policies — such as decriminalizing illegal border crossings — but polls have shown that voters trust Trump more than her on immigration. If elected, Trump has vowed to carry out the largest mass deportation operation in American history.

At Sunday's rally, Harris reiterated measures aimed at appeasing several wings of the Democratic Party. He called for a path to citizenship for people brought to the U.S. illegally as children while attacking Trump for torpedoing bipartisan legislation that would have given the Biden administration the authority to “close” – or process – the border of most asylum applications – if the number of encounters with migrants reaches a certain threshold.

Rally attendee Michelle Waters, 61, was particularly vocal about Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric, which has increased in recent weeks, highlighted by repeating the baseless claim that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating people's pets.

“We’re all immigrants, right? We all came from somewhere,” Waters said. “His wife is an immigrant. The entire United States is made up of immigrants.”

Appealing to Latinos

Harris specifically appealed to Latinos, saying that “Latina small business owners are the fastest-growing segment of our economy” and promising to realize their “ambitious aspirations” and dreams through a $50,000 tax deduction for those who start new businesses.

It illustrated the campaign's approach to engaging Latino voters, an important and growing voting bloc in Nevada. The Harris campaign's appeals included ads aimed at Spanish- and English-speaking Latino voters in swing states, including Nevada. The policy- and community-focused ads touch on issues such as public safety, the economy, immigration and health care, without explicitly describing Latinos as a major voting bloc.

A Telemundo A poll released Sunday showed Harris with a 14 percentage point lead among Latinos nationally, a significant drop in support from four years ago. A UnidosUS poll found Harris has a 23 percent lead over Trump among Latinos in Nevada, although that is still lower than Biden's lead in 2020.

Noe Quintero, the son of Mexican immigrants and Clark County Fire Chief, introduced Harris. While speaking in Spanish at times, he told a story about himself as a father, husband and middle-class worker, emphasizing his hopes for reproductive freedom and better health care for his daughter, who has a genetic disorder that affects her brain and development.

He made economic arguments for supporting Harris.

“I want my children to live in a country where you don’t have to work multiple jobs to put food on the table,” Quintero said. “Vice President Harris is putting middle-class working families first – families like mine, families like yours. She will fight to reduce costs and create the union jobs my community depends on.”

Reporter Tabitha Mueller contributed to this article.