Recent polling shows presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in a dead heat in Pennsylvania, and the Harris campaign is raising alarm bells about Latino men in the state. More than 300,000 Puerto Rican voters live in Pennsylvania, the largest group of Hispanic voters in the state and third-highest population of Puerto Ricans nationally.
The Harris campaign is at risk of losing the state due to the campaign’s poor strategy with Hispanic voters nationwide, and, specifically, Puerto Rican Pennsylvanians.
In 2020, Pennsylvania was decided by 80,000 votes. Harris needs to run up enthusiasm and margins with Hispanic voters to win the state.
The Trump campaign has doubled down on these voters by inviting Puerto Rican rap artists to his rallies. More recently, Trump appeared on stage with one of the original reggaeton founders, Nicky Jam. Trump’s efforts to make inroads in the Pennsylvanian Puerto Rican community was noticed by young Hispanic voters and the genre’s millions of fans and followers.
Harris has an opening with Puerto Rican voters in these swing states, but her campaign must act now. A recent nationwide UnidosUS poll among Puerto Rican voters shows Harris leading Trump by 26 points (57 percent to 31 percent).
Despite this lead, it may not be enough. The Puerto Rican community is strong in Pennsylvania, with 456,589 Puerto Ricans calling the state home. If Harris were to lose 10 percent of Puerto Rican vote compared to 2020, it could result in tens of thousands of additional votes for Trump.
One critical issue that resonates strongly with both Puerto Rican and all Pennsylvania voters is support for Puerto Rican statehood. In 2020, a YouGov/Data for Progress poll showed 56 percent of Pennsylvania voters supported Puerto Rican statehood, compared to 24 percent opposed. Recent state-level polling in Florida of Puerto Rican voters shows a 78 percent support for the issue. And Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania likely mirror this number — which is seen across other states where polling has been conducted, because most Puerto Ricans moved to Pennsylvania due to the second-class citizenship afforded the territory.
While statehood for Puerto Rico aligns with the Harris-Walz campaign’s message of strengthening democracy and voting rights, Harris has yet to make a clear statement on the issue. As vice president, she endorsed the historic Puerto Rico Status Act, which provides a congressional vehicle for the island’s residents to determine their own future through a binding vote that includes statehood as an option. The legislative proposal was recently adopted as part of the party platform during the Democratic convention in Chicago.
Addressing statehood directly would create a clear contrast with Trump on Puerto Rico, who has only rolled out celebrities and nothing to help the island.
The U.S. citizens on the island receive fewer federal benefits, including Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP and Social Security income. Puerto Rican voters have voted continually to become a state in the last three non-binding ballot initiatives (plebiscites) held on the issue. We are now slated to vote again for statehood in November in another plebiscite.
It is time for the Harris-Walz campaign to play the ace up their sleeve and speak up in support of statehood for Puerto Rico. All available data show that Puerto Rican voters are significantly more likely to vote for a candidate that supports statehood, regardless of whether said voters personally support statehood or not. This will translate into votes at the polls and could seal the victory for the Harris-Walz campaign. It is also the morally right thing to do.
