READING, Pa. The pastor opened with a prayer in Spanish, asking for the Lord’s spirit and guidance to direct the proceedings without offering an English translation. Most of the 50 or so attendees were white and didn’t seem to follow along, although they knew enough to sing “Amen!” at the end.
This is how the former president began donald trump The Trump campaign teamed up with the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania to open a “Latino Americans for Trump” office on Wednesday in the city of Reading.
“We believe in the American Dream and the only way to achieve it is to work hard,” Luis Fortuno, former governor of Puerto Rico, told the same crowd. To the smaller group of Spanish speakers present, he delivered remarks that leaned heavily on the theme “Necesitamos cambio” – Spanish for “We need change.”
Trump and top Republicans are seeking to boost their support among Hispanic voters in a swing state that could very well decide the election. Having closed many party offices specializing in minority outreachThey are betting that promises to prioritize entrepreneurship and smaller governments could resonate with a voting bloc that has historically favored Democrats.
Reading is perhaps best known as the namesake of the Monopoly board’s Reading Railroad. A city of about 95,000 people about 65 miles northwest of Philadelphia, Reading is 67% Latino, according to U.S. Census data, and is home to high concentrations of people of Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage.
Biden’s approval rating has fallen among Hispanic adults in national polls, but it remains unclear whether Trump will be able to capitalize.
The opening of the Reading office comes a week after the Trump campaign established its first Pennsylvania office at a location in Northeast Philadelphia. That event was billed as a “Blacks for Trump” rally and was attended by Texas Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt and other prominent black Republicans.
In both Philadelphia and Reading on Wednesday, the majority of participants were white.
Trump himself held a rally aimed to energize Latino support on Sunday in Las Vegas, where he joked: “We need every voter. I don’t care about you, I just want your vote.” The former president also said that immigrants were turning the US “into a garbage dump” and promised: “We will not let them destroy our country”.
President Joe Biden The Trump campaign says Trump is dealing with dangerous and racist stereotypes and has dismissed his campaign’s office openings as superficial condescension to minority voters.
Biden’s reelection campaign, along with the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, has opened 24 offices and has more than 100 staffers across the state, and has spent months organizing house parties and other voter mobilization efforts. It has been spending on advertising in Pennsylvania since late last summer, with a special emphasis on voters of Puerto Rican or Caribbean origin.
Yrene Rodriguez, 46, an accountant at Reading Community College who said she and her entire family support Biden, dismissed Wednesday’s efforts by Trump supporters as “just propaganda.”
“They just want people to say good things about him,” Rodriguez said.
Luis Rodríguez, owner of a wholesale trading and real estate rehabilitation company with offices in Pennsylvania, spoke at the opening of Trump’s office and spoke about the importance of extending the wall on the US-Mexico border, a signature promise of the first Trump campaign he ran in office.
Asked after the event about concerns that Trump’s harsh personal rhetoric might alienate some Hispanics, Rodriguez, who is not related to Yrene, said such suggestions do not have “any support or validity.”
Michael Rivera, a commissioner in Berks County, which covers Reading, spoke at the office opening in English and Spanish and said more efforts to reach Hispanic voters “demonstrate the Republican Party’s understanding of the power of diversity among the American people.”
Located in a red brick building across from a downtown CVS, the campaign office was indistinguishable from most corporate spaces except for signs in the front window that read “Latin Americans for Trump,” “Stop the illegal vote” and “Joe Biden, you You are fired.”
Drawing more attention was a table of Trump merchandise set up for the event on the sidewalk outside. Some passersby rolled their eyes or voiced their objections, but others were delighted with the display.
“I just want the real king. The true king of America!” shouted a man, loud enough to be heard inside the office. “That’s Trump.”
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