Arizona could turn blue for the first time in 20 years, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine told a 900-person crowd in Tucson on Thursday night.
“Arizona is in play,” Kaine said. “It’s close.”
Later, he added of the close race nationally: “I’d rather be us than them.”
The Virginia senator said he was confident voters will back Hillary Clinton in Arizona despite a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll that had Trump with 45 percent of the vote, compared to Clinton’s 40 percent.
New-voter registration in Arizona, especially in the Latino community, is especially encouraging, Kaine told the capacity crowd in the Sunnyside High School gym.
Kaine spent Thursday afternoon in Phoenix, giving his entire speech in Spanish.
His messages in Spanish in Phoenix — “Juntos Se Puede” — and in English in Tucson were identical. “Together we can” defeat the Republican nominee Donald Trump, he said.
The ideological divide between Clinton and Trump came up time and again during his speech, with Kaine saying one was a dedicated public servant for the last 30 years while the other only was concerned with himself.
Outlining Clinton’s economic plan, Kaine said it would generate 10.5 million new jobs in her first term, adding that economists reviewed both her plan and that of her GOP rival. The same economists suggested Trump’s plan would kill 3.5 million jobs in four years, Kaine said.
“That is the difference between a ‘you are hired’ president and a ‘you are fired’ president,” he said.
Kaine said his favorite story about Clinton is more than 20 years old, a time before some of the youngest members of the audience could remember. On the defeat of what Republicans had dubbed “HillaryCare,” the then-first lady refused to back down, Kaine said, and instead went back to work to pass legislation that helped 8 million poor children get health care.
The crowd roared when Kaine discussed Trump’s plan to build a wall along the Mexican border and his comments about Latinos, noting that Clinton has plans to introduce comprehensive immigration reform within her first 100 days in office.
Clinton has not visited Tucson, instead sending surrogates to campaign for her. Bernie Sanders stumped for her on the University of Arizona campus last month and her husband, Bill, filled the same Sunnyside High auditorium in April.
Trump and his vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, have each campaigned once in Tucson this year.
Clinton supporter Patrick O’Connor, wearing a Chicago Cubs T-shirt at Kaine’s rally, said that in Arizona, the Democratic nominee has something in common with the new World Series champions — they have been proverbial underdogs.
“Like he was saying, they are the underdogs, and it is going to be a historic event when they win,” O’Connor said.
At the end of his speech, Kaine asked members of the crowd to volunteer their time in the remaining days before the election and most importantly, to vote for Clinton.
“We can’t take anything for granted,” he said, asserting that Russia is trying to influence the election.
The visit brought out some protesters, including several who were removed from the gym for interrupting Kaine’s speech.
One woman outside of the high school stood in the rain while shouting that anyone voting for Clinton would go to hell. She held a sign that read “Martha Stewart lied 1 time to the FBI and went 2 jail. Hillary lied 39 times.”
