Sitting in his station at North Town Barbershop, a business his family has owned for six years, the 22-year-old was hoping his late client would still stop in.
It’s a ‘mid’ day, Garcia said, as he’s noticed a slowdown in business this week. Garcia has worked at the barbershop for about three years. It wasn’t his dream job, but it was all he felt he could turn to after injuring his meniscus as a soccer player. It pays the bills, but not enough to move out of his parents’ house and into his own place.
‘It’s a hard decision because like all the economy and all that, I feel like that has a lot to play with,’ he said. ‘I feel like that’s something we all need to look at, like for a better future for us.’
That’s his top concern as he’s still looking into who he will vote for in the election in November. But Republican Donald Trump is the candidate he’s considering.
Garcia is one of a growing number of young Latino men who are turning to Trump in this election cycle – a growing phenomenon despite a majority of Latino voters still gravitating toward the Democratic Party. But in a state like Nevada, where the margins are razor thin between Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump, the erosion of young Latino men could affect the election for Democrats.
A USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll published Monday shows Harris is leading Trump among Latino voters in Nevada, 56%-40%. And while she holds the majority of support among Latinas, Trump is seeing a rise in support among Latino men under 50.
Slightly more than half – 53% – of Latino men ages 18-34 are supporting Trump and 40% are supporting Harris. Those numbers were almost identical for Latino men ages 35-49, 53% for Trump and 39% for Harris.
For Brian Ruiz, a 23-year-old who lives in North Las Vegas, Harris is making a lot of promises that he doesn’t think will help the economy.
‘I feel like we’re just gonna go more in debt than we already are,’ Ruiz said.
But under Trump, Ruiz insisted, ‘everything was kind of cheaper’ and the country wasn’t at war.
‘To be honest, it wasn’t really that bad,’ Ruiz said of Trump’s administration. ‘But ever since they kind of just got into office, like Kamala Harris and (Joe) Biden, it’s kind of gone to (expletive).’
Lack of outreach, support
Just miles down from the Las Vegas strip, on a Tuesday night, at least 100 people – mostly men – gathered for a series of MMA matches at UFC’s Apex Arena. It’s the type of event that Trump has used to get closer to young men, especially Latinos.
Trump over the past several months has randomly dropped into major UFC events. He’s done interviews with podcasters like Lex Fridman and Theo Von. And he’s rolled out endorsements from reggaeton stars Anuel AA and Nicky Jam. (The two reggaetoneros faced backlash from some Latinos for their support of the GOP nominee.)
But it’s something that is resonating with some Latino men.
Yordany Gonzalez, a 34-year-old Las Vegas resident, is a registered Democrat who voted for Joe Biden in 2020. But he remembers the day Biden lost his support. On Biden’s first day in office, he signed an executive order for the protections of gay and transgender people in schools and workplaces.
Gonzalez, who practices martial arts and has a daughter, said he did not agree with the action.
Latinos, he said, are actually ‘very conservative.’ A lot of times Republicans are thought of as ‘rich white guys,’ he said. While he doesn’t fully trust the Democratic or Republican parties, Gonzalez said he believes that right now Republicans will do what they need to fix the economy.
‘Maybe we got to be a little selfish in our country and say, ‘You know what, everybody else? We can’t do nothing for you right now. We need to work ourselves out,’’ he said. ‘And I just feel like the Republicans are just, you know, they’re more greedy.’
Rafael Collazo, executive director of UnidosUS Action Fund, the political arm of the Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, said the shift in support toward Republicans among Latino men speaks to the ‘sustained lack of engagement’ to the broader Latino community.
Democrats’ lack of engagement to Latino voters leads to lack of information, which turns to frustration and then leads to misinformation creeping into voters’ politics, Collazo said. Latino men, in particular, are not hearing from Democrats about the message that matters most to them: the economy.
‘The perception of Trump being some business guru unfortunately creeps in,’ Collazo said of Latino men trusting Trump.
Stepping up Latino engagement
With less than a month until the election, the Harris campaign has said it is working to make up ground with Latino men. The campaign launched ‘Hombres con Harris,’ an effort to mobilize Latino men by homing in on an economic message. Top surrogates will be stopping by Latino-owned small businesses, sports bars, union halls, and other community venues to try to reach more Latino men.
Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, alongside Rep. Reuben Gallego and actor Jaime Camil kicked off the push in Arizona. The campaign will host a series of events in the key battleground states of Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nevada to appeal to Latino men.
Harris held a rally in Las Vegas in September that 7,500 people attended. Walz, held a rally in Reno on Tuesday, which came after he canceled a previously scheduled rally in mid-September because of a wildfire in the area.
The campaign is also pointing to Harris’ Thursday town hall in Las Vegas with Univision as part of this effort. (Trump will also take part in a town hall with Univision next week, which was postponed because of Hurricane Milton.)
But it’s unclear whether Harris’ town hall will move the needle with young Latino men, especially those who are leaning right, Collazo said.
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