Kamala Harris to visit Fort Worth Friday, as both campaigns look to gain Latino voters

FORT WORTH, Texas - Vice presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris will visit Fort Worth Friday.

She'll be the highest-ranking official in the Biden campaign to visit ahead of the general election.

Biden's campaign hasn't made huge efforts in Texas, as a Democrat hasn't won the Lone Star State since Carter in the 70s.

Months ago, Republicans were goading Democrats to spend money here, saying it was a waste and it would never happen.

But polls have showed the race getting closer, perhaps a toss-up.

And there's a part of the population, the Latino vote, that some say is often overlooked.

Along with her visit to Fort Worth, Harris will also stop in Houston and McAllen.

RELATED: Kamala Harris to visit Fort Worth, Houston, Rio Grande Valley during Texas campaign swing Friday

It'll come a day after both men at the top of the ticket rallied in Florida.

As polls shed light on the importance of Latino voters in both states.

“Biden's agenda will devastate the Hispanic community, He betrayed Hispanic Americans for 47 years. He's been very bad to the Hispanic Americans and what is happening with those poll numbers,” Trump said at a rally.

Biden, meanwhile, is out with a new ad and a new pledge that hammers the Trump administration after the revelation that parents of 545 migrant children separated at the U.S.-Mexico border can't be found.

“On his first day as president, Joe Biden will issue an executive order creating a federal task force to reunite these children with their parents,” the ad said.

“Every presidential election, I hear that the Latinos are the tipping point for any presidential campaign and it's simply because they're never courted,” said Sharon Navarro.

Navarro is a professor of political science at UT San Antonio, and specializes in Latino voters.

She said it's not uncommon to see a push for Latino voters in the campaign's waning days.

“I think in every presidential campaign, the Latino community is always taken for granted, and in the last six weeks of any presidential campaign, you can look back at history you'll see the sprint for the Latino outreach,” she said.

A New York Times/Sienna College poll of likely Texas voters this week showed Biden with 57% of Latino support, and the president with 34%.

According to the Times, for Biden, it's less Latino support than is estimated Clinton had in 2016, and an increase in support for Trump from 2016.

“What political scientists really haven't studied yet is the machismo factor that's coming into play with Donald Trump. We see a change in the movement of Latino men for Trump because of his bravado, his machismo, his ability to buck the system,” Navarro explained.

With the campaign in its final hours, Navarro said there are couple key issues for the campaigns to target to lure Latino votes.

“It's the coronavirus and healthcare,” she said.