Spanish-only campaign plan plays to Kaine’s, and Clinton’s, strengths in Arizona | McClatchy Washington Bureau

Tim Kaine will campaign in Arizona on Thursday – entirely in Spanish.

In what the Hillary Clinton campaign is calling a first in a U.S. presidential race, the Democratic vice presidential nominee will ditch his English skills during a Phoenix campaign rally and deliver his remarks in Spanish. It’s a bold move in a state where immigration remains a divisive issue. But the Clinton campaign sees an opportunity to capitalize on the rapidly growing – and engaged – Latino population that’s helped turn Arizona into a swing state.

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Clinton and GOP candidate Donald Trump are in a virtual tie for what has traditionally been a Republican stronghold. Clinton holds a 0.6 percentage point lead, according to an average of state polls compiled by Real Clear Politics.

Arizona is known for having some of the toughest enforcement laws against immigration and a sheriff who dressed inmates in pink underwear.

The last time Arizona was considered a competitive state was when Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, won the state in 1996. But now Hillary Clinton sees an opportunity for herself in a state whose Latino population has tripled in the last 25 years.

Kaine speaks fluent Spanish after spending time as a missionary in Honduras. He is expected to appeal to the Latino community’s strong interest in a path to citizenship for immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, and to chastise GOP candidate Donald Trump’s plans to build a wall and deport millions of immigrants.

“Arizonans have increasingly rejected Donald Trump’s offensive and dangerously divisive rhetoric,” the Clinton campaign said in an announcement of Kaine’s rally.

The campaign said more information about the location and time of the rally would be announced later this week.

Trump also picked Phoenix for his much-anticipated speech on immigration awhile back. Thousands of Trump supporters filled the Phoenix Convention Center in August to hear him press his hard-line approach to illegal immigration.

“For those here illegally today, who are seeking legal status, they will have one route and one route only: to return home and apply for re-entry like everybody else, under the rules of the new legal immigration system that I have outlined,” Trump told supporters.

Clinton’s message is expected to play well in the Latino community.

An October Latino Decisions battleground survey found that 83 percent of Latinos were “almost certain” to vote in this year’s presidential election, the highest among battleground states, which include Florida, Nevada and North Carolina. Among those, 70 percent said they’d vote for Clinton and 18 percent said they’d vote for Trump.