Trump, Harris Duel in the Desert With Last-Pitch Rallies in Battleground Nevada

LAS VEGAS—Presidential candidates Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump took to the desert on Oct. 31 to make their last pitch to voters in the battleground state of Nevada.

In an afternoon rally in Henderson, Trump called on the battleground state’s voters to reject Harris, calling her a “radical left Marxist,” and hinted that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could be appointed to “work on women’s health” in a second Trump administration.

In an evening address in North Las Vegas, Harris asked Nevadans to “turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump,” claiming he “would get rid of” the Affordable Care Act, approve a federal law banning abortion, and target immigrants including Latinos—20 percent of the state’s electorate. She urged them to vote the Democratic ticket in what she called “the most consequential elections in our lifetime.”

With five days before the Nov. 5 election and the Oct. 19–Nov. 1 early in-person concluding on Friday, the smallest of the seven swing states pundits say will decide the 2024 election is up for grabs.

Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, Henderson, and North Las Vegas, is the key: 71 percent of the state’s 3.2 million residents live in the Las Vegas Valley, where three of Nevada’s four Congressional districts—all occupied by Democrat incumbents—have been ripe but elusive GOP targets for the past three election cycles.

Trump thanked supporters for their robust early voting turnout in his last pitch before about 6,000 at Lee’s Family Forum in an ice rink that seats 5,670 for Henderson Silver Hawk minor league hockey games.

It was his eighth time campaigning in Nevada since 2023, including a stump last week at the University of Nevada–Las Vegas’s Thomas & Mack Center.

Harris implored supporters to find eligible voters and get them to the polls during her address in the packed 8,000-seat Craig Ranch Regional Park Amphitheater, where crowds swelled onto the grassy slopes above the venue.

It was her 10th visit to Nevada as vice president and third since she succeeded Biden in July as the Democrats’ presidential candidate. She hosted a town hall in Las Vegas earlier in October.

Trump and Harris are not likely to return to Nevada before Nov. 5, but the triple-tier battleground state remains very much within their campaigns’ focus.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) both announced on Oct. 31 that they will be stumping in Nevada on Saturday.

Trump Takeaways

Trump’s Henderson rally followed a stump in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and proceeded a campaign event in Phoenix, another of the seven battleground states.

He was proceeded by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Nevada Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony, Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown, Gov. Joe Lombardo—the first time he’s joined Trump in a campaign rally—Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), and Nevada Republican Party Chair Michael McDonald.

The former president opened his 90-minute address by asking, “Are you better now than you were four years ago?” and received a rousing “no” from supporters, before reciting platform pledges to “ban taxes on tips, Social Security, and overtime pay” and vowing to “rebuild our cities, including our capital in Washington, D.C., and make them safe, clean and beautiful again.”

He said he is considering an appointment for Kennedy, who dropped out of the race in August and endorsed Trump, to “work on health and women’s health and all of the different reasons, because we’re not really a wealthy or a healthy country.”

He invited the family of Nicholas Quets, a Marine veteran murdered on Oct. 18 in Mexico allegedly by a Mexican drug cartel. The victim’s father, Warren Quets, said that “two weeks ago,” he “was completely apolitical,” but that all that has changed and that the response from Trump and Vance, rather than his elected state and federal officials, convinced him to get political.

Trump is “a decent man; that is not reported in the news,” he said, noting an immigration/border solution “can be bipartisan … but we need a leader who will act.”

He supports legal immigration and backs efforts to make the process less onerous for those who want to enter the country legally. But those who don’t will be deported and, if found in the country again, will serve 10 years in prison before being booted out again, he said.

“On Tuesday,” Trump told the crowd,  “you have to stand up and tell Kamala she’s horrible—there has never been anybody worse on the border; the most egregious betrayal any leader has ever afflicted on our people—and say, ‘Kamala, you’re fired.’”

He repeatedly paused for “USA, USA, USA” and “fight, fight, fight” chants.

Harris Takeaways

Harris’s North Las Vegas rally followed same-day stumps in Phoenix and Reno, Nevada, her first visit to Washoe County, the state’s second-most populated area.

She was preceded by a slate of speakers that included Reps. Dina Titus, Steven Horsford, and Susie Lee—the Las Vegas area’s three Democrat House incumbents; notably their GOP challengers did not get onto Trump’s stage—and Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada), who is defending her seat against Brown.

Mexican pop rock band Maná, considered the most successful Latin American band of all time, played a five-song set before singer and actress Jennifer Lopez, a New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent, delivered a passionate speech criticizing Trump’s immigration policy platform.

Lopez said she has performed on stages around the world including many in Las Vegas but that “this is the most important stage” she’s ever been on.

She said Trump’s policies, such as separating illegal immigrant children from their families, speaks louder than his statement distancing himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s Oct. 27 Madison Square Garden remarks calling Puerto Rico an island of floating garbage.

“It wasn’t just Puerto Ricans who were offended that day,” Lopez said, her voice quivering in emotion. “It was every Latino in this country, it was humanity, and anyone of decent character.”

During her 23-minute speech, Harris claimed that Trump would again target the Affordable Care Act (ACA), citing recent remarks by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) promising “massive reform” of the ACA during a second Trump administration.

“Health care for all Americans is on the line in this election,” she said, claiming that Trump would also cut entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

If elected, Harris said, she would sign a bill to restore the Roe ruling on federal abortion access, make tips tax-free, and create tax credits for caregivers.

She vowed to work with Republicans—noting she had done so as a senator—and be a “president for all Americans.”

“I am here to ask for your vote. It is time for a new generation of leadership in America and I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States of America,” she said.

She repeatedly paused for “We won’t go back” and “When we fight, we win” chants.

Costumes and Characters

Trump’s event was peopled with colorful consumed characters. Elvis, Lady Liberty, and Buddhist monks not dressed as Buddhist monks were there. Tien Tran, who said he is a Buddhist monk, was there dressed as a sanitation worker.

He’d been at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally and was headed for his election watch in South Florida on Nov. 5.

“Since President Trump survived his assassination attempt, he has become more … religious,” Tran said. “God has given him a blessing so he can turn the country around.”

Henderson’s Stan Kurz was there dressed as The Doors’ Jim Morrison. He suggested that the long-dead rocker would be a conservative Trump supporter “if he had lived long enough.”

Vietnam veteran Bob Owens flew in from Santa Monica for the rally. Immigration, economy, and security are his three big issues, which he said Trump would tend to better than Harris.

The nation doesn’t need new laws, he said, adding that “enforcing the laws” is what’s missing.

Margo Tucker, a Wyoming native who lives in Henderson, said she’s supporting Trump based on the metric that past performance indicates future results.

“I keep thinking about what he has done before,” she said. “My life was better when he was president than it has been” under the Biden administration, she added.

Mattie Johnson, a computer programmer for a casino she declined to name, was rocking to Mana at Craig Ranch Regional Park Amphitheater but paused long enough to say she supported Harris because “she’s the smartest cookie in the room—at least if she’s in the room with Trump.”

Johnson said she liked Harris’s pledge to stymie grocery chain mergers and “fight back against corporate landlords.”

Johnny Tapia of Las Vegas said Harris would give immigrants and Latinos are fair break that he doubts Trump would.

“I know a lot of friends who were thinking about voting for Trump, but not now, not after Madison Square,” he said.

Many streamed from the amphitheater after Mana’s set and Lopez’s introduction, Harris’s speech filtering through the pine groves as they ambled in the dark toward their cars.

Jean Louis, an immigrant from France who lives in Pahrump, Nevada, said he didn’t think there were any more undecided voters but feared Harris could lose votes because of Biden.

“She needs to ask Biden to do nothing and say nothing” until Election Day, he said.

Valeria Angon, a student from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and three friends were visiting Las Vegas when they decided to attend the Harris rally, but they never made it inside because they got caught in paralyzed traffic as the vice president’s motorcade arrived at Craig Ranch Regional Park.

“We couldn’t get in—they said it was too crowded,” she said, but they stuck around anyway to listen to the music and hear the speeches.

Angon will be casting her first vote on Nov. 5 and she’s proud it will be for a woman to be president, she said.

“I believe [Harris] has a lot of belief in me,” she said, and so she believes in her.

Kevin didn’t make it to the amphitheater because he was at the Trump rally, a lone Harris supporter waving a flag and denouncing the former president at the entrance as people were beginning to leave Lee’s Family Forum.

“I’m going trick-or-treating” instead of the Harris rally, he said. “Unless she has candy for me.”

Kevin, who did not offer a last name, said he’s “a proud Democrat.” and was demonstrating because “Trump supporters have a cult mentality” and Democrats don’t. If Biden acted like Trump “they’d dump him in 10 seconds,” he said.

Ryan Molldenhauer was among many milling about Kevin who vehemently disagreed. He lives nearby and walked over, but “they stopped letting people in,” he said.

He was enjoying the carnival-like atmosphere with vendors selling Trump regalia, something you don’t see at Harris rallies, Kevin interjected.