Harris and Trump will rally in Arizona and Nevada to win over voters: NPR

This combination of file photos shows Vice President Harris speaking during a campaign rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on October 26, and former President Donald Trump during a rally on October 22 in Greensboro, North Carolina

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The presidential campaign continues west on Thursday as Vice President Harris and former President Donald Trump make their closing arguments to voters in the critical swing states of Arizona and Nevada.

With five days until Election Day voting ends, candidates are expected to reach out to Latino voters in the two states – and talk about border security, one of the biggest issues of the campaign.

In Arizona, Trump will speak at an event in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale Tucker Carlsonthe conservative commentator known for stirring up controversy. Harris will speak at a rally in Phoenix where Los Tigres del Norte, a well-known Mexican norteño band from California, is scheduled to perform.

Arizona — which Trump lost by fewer than 11,000 votes in 2020 — remains one of the most closely contested states in this year's election. Republicans are hoping a ballot measure that would make illegal border crossings a state crime will help motivate support for Trump, while Democrats have been trying to mobilize voters behind a ballot measure that would enshrine the right to abortion in the U.S. Constitution state would anchor.

With their stops in Nevada, home to large numbers of service industry workers, both candidates return to a state where they have announced plans to eliminate taxes on tips for hourly workers.

Trump will be in the town of Henderson, just outside Las Vegas. Harris will be in Reno and Las Vegas, where she will perform alongside pop icon Jennifer Lopez and Maná, a Mexican pop-rock band.

In Arizona, Latinos make up 25% of eligible voters, while in Nevada they make up just over one in five eligible voters, according to the Pew Research Center. Traditionally, Democrats have won significant shares of the population, but polls have shown that the Republican candidate has squandered that advantage.

The Sun Belt push comes as both candidates continue to deal with the fallout from a comedian's crude joke who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash” at Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden in New York last weekend.

The remark initially sparked a wave of backlash against Trump, but on Wednesday Harris cleared up President Biden's comments during a video call in which he sounded like he was calling Trump supporters “trash.” Trump responded in Wisconsin on Wednesday, speaking to the press from a garbage truck.

Trump is also making an unusual campaign stop on Thursday in New Mexico, a state that hasn't elected a Republican to the White House since 2004. The rally will mark Albuquerque his first time in the reliably democratic state since his run for the White House in 2020.