By SEUNG MIN KIM (Associated Press)
PHOENIX (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday personally appealed to Latino voters, saying they’re the reason he defeated Donald Trump in 2020 and urging them to help him do it again in November.
“I need you back,” he told several dozen supporters packed into a local Mexican restaurant.
Biden said the upcoming election isn’t a referendum on him, but rather a choice between “me and a guy named Trump.” The Democrat highlighted Trump’s derogatory rhetoric toward Latinos, from saying during his winning 2016 campaign that many of those coming to the United States from Mexico are rapists to the Republican’s more recent claim that migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Biden said Hispanic unemployment is the lowest it’s been in a long time because of his policies, highlighted administration initiatives to help small businesses and reduce gun violence, and criticized Trump for wanting more tax cuts for rich people.
“He wants to get rid of all the programs we put together,” Biden said.
Biden’s push with Latino voters is part of the campaign’s broader efforts to lay the groundwork to reengage various constituencies he will need to be reelected. That effort is all the more crucial as key parts of Biden’s base, such as Black and Hispanic adults, have become increasingly disenchanted with his performance in office.
In an AP-NORC poll conducted in February, 38% of U.S. adults approved of how Biden was handling his job. Nearly 6 in 10 Black adults (58%) approved, compared to 36% of Hispanic adults. Black adults are more likely than white and Hispanic adults to approve of Biden, but that approval has dropped in the three years since Biden took office.
Biden, who is on a three-day campaign swing through Nevada, Arizona and Texas that’s designed largely to court Latino voters, told supporters at an earlier political stop Tuesday in Reno, Nevada, that he and Trump have a “different…
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