Every weekday morning, DJ VJ Mar steps up to his microphone and rattles off the latest on pop culture, celebrity gossip and political news.
But on a recent Tuesday morning, he had a special guest.
“How important is the Latino vote here in Pennsylvania for the Biden-Harris campaign?” DJ VJ Mar asked his guest live on the air.
“It’s VERY important,” Vice President Kamala Harris emphatically replied.
The vice president had called in to the Spanish-language radio station “La Mega” in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley to criticize former President Donald Trump and promote the administration’s work on the economy, immigration, abortion and more.
“That to me is a signal that (President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign) wants to engage the Latino community in Pennsylvania,” DJ VJ Mar — whose real name is Victor Martinez — told CNN in an interview.
Martinez believes both campaigns need to prioritize Latinos here in Pennsylvania, which will again be one of the most watched states on the presidential map.
“I think the Latino vote could be the deciding factor,” said Martinez.
From his Allentown studio, Martinez has watched his Latino audience grow rapidly across the working-class rustbelt strongholds of southeastern and central Pennsylvania.
There are more than a million Hispanic or Latino people living in the Commonwealth, according to recent census data. The Hispanic/Latino population has grown more than 40% in Pennsylvania since 2010.
The White population is still by far the largest in the state, but it has decreased slightly over the same time period.
Much of the growth has occurred in what’s known as the “222 Corridor”—a group of cities…
Read the full article here
