Why HHS secretary thinks Latino support for Kamala Harris will grow

CHICAGO - If Vice President Kamala Harris wants to win the 2024 presidential race, it's estimated that she'll need as much as 70 percent of the Latino vote to put her in the White House. Her current support with the Latino community falls around 59 percent.

Xavier Becerra, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, believes Harris can close this gap.

"I think we will see [Latino support] grow – and grow dramatically," Becerra told USA TODAY at the Democratic convention. "What we're doing now is we're getting out there and making sure she has a chance to introduce herself, not as a vice president, but as the presidential candidate. I think that's when people will start to ask deeper questions."

Election analysis released by Equis, a data and research firm, suggests that Harris is already making up for ground lost among Latino voters when President Joe Biden was still the Democratic nominee.

Calling Harris' effect on the race a "Latino reset," Equis says Harris is doing particularly well among younger Latinos. At a 60 percent approval rating, her support among Latinos under the age of 40 is 17 points higher than it was under Biden.

Becerra also said that he thinks the Latino community will identify with Harris' life story, which she and others shared at the DNC. Harris is the child of immigrants; her mother arrived in the United States from India in 1958, while her father emigrated from Jamaica in 1961.

"I have no doubt that the Latino community is going to be interested in Kamala Harris, because in so many ways, she reflects some of the values that we see in the Latino community," Becerra said. "As a child of immigrants, as someone who had to work her way up and prove herself, someone who's had a chance to open doors that our parents never had a chance to."He concluded: "So, in so many different ways, when they hear the Kamala Harris story, they're going to say, 'That sounds a lot like our story or what we aspire to see.'"

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: HHS secretary has 'no doubt' Latino support of Kamala Harris will grow