Saturday evening, August 24, U.S. Representative Pete Aguilar (CA-33), Chair of the House Democratic Caucus and the highest-ranking Latino member ever to serve in the U.S. House, headlined a Latinos con Harris-Walz reception with Southeast Michigan Latino leaders, including State Representative Veronica Paiz, former State Representative Belda Garza and Trenton City Councilmember Dora Rodriguez.
Of the Harris-Walz surrogates in Michigan Saturday, two were from California and one from Texas, simultaneously visiting Michigan’s largest Hispanic populated cities, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint and Saginaw.
“It was truly inspirational to witness the bipartisan attendance dynamic, mirroring what had just transpired at the National Convention,” said Rogelio Landin, chair of the Detroit chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
Latinos con Harris-Walz is aimed at engaging, training, and mobilizing Latino supporters on messaging and relational organizing to reach their friends and families about Vice President Harris and the choice Latinos will face in this election.
A statement about Congressman Aguilar’s visit released by the Harris-Walz campaign pointed to the stark difference between the two parties’ approach to serving the needs of Latinos and Americans in general. “While Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are creating more opportunities for Latinos, working to fix our broken immigration system, and fighting for our fundamental freedoms — Donald Trump demonizes immigrants and in office he oversaw a spike in Latino unemployment rate, tried to rip away families’ health care, and separated children from their families.”
“[Harris] understands the experience of the Latino community. She understands hard work, making a difference, family, faith, and ensuring that the next generation has an opportunity to succeed,” said U.S. Representative Pete Aguilar. “Her first policy platform was building three million new homes across this country, reducing barriers and having a $25,000 first time homeowner tax credit. Those are things that will increase homeownership and build wealth within the Latino community.”
“You make the difference, and our community can make the difference. Take it from me — I’m the highest-ranking Latino in Congress — and I know I’ll go anywhere I can to talk about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz because the stakes in this election are that important — protecting reproductive freedom, protecting access to health care, protecting democracy,” Rep. Aguilar continued. “These are the things that are important to Southeast Michigan. These are the things that this election will be about. But we need to ensure that we don’t wake up the day after the election with any regret – no wasted energy, no wasted resources, no regrets.”
