Dolores Huerta to Latinos: Don't vote for Donald Trump, John McCain

• Huerta, along with Cesar Chavez, helped organize farm workers in the 1970s
• McCain supporter calls event 'shameful example of partisan, election-year politics'

Mexican-American civil-rights leader Dolores Huerta was in Phoenix on Thursday to help launch a bilingual radio ad campaign that urges Latinos in Arizona, North Carolina and Florida not to vote for Donald Trump because of the GOP presidential nominee's stance on immigration.

The ads, produced by the liberal People for the American Way, also urge Latinos not to vote for senators in three key states running for re-election because of their support for Trump: Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

All three states have significant Latino populations that could play a deciding factor in the outcome of the presidential election.

"We include in the ad campaign John McCain because he is a person who even though Donald Trump has been making this hateful rhetoric against Mexicans, Sen. McCain has not done anything to denounce the statements that (Trump) is saying," Huerta said.

Huerta, along with Cesar Chavez, helped organize farm workers in the 1970s. The Bakersfield, Calif., resident is now a board member of People for the American Way.

The ads will run over the next week through Arizona's primary on Tuesday.

McCain is considered a heavy favorite in the three-way Republican primary Senate race, where he is facing former state Sen. Kelli Ward of Lake Havasu City and "tea party" conservative Clair Van Steenwyk of Sun City West. The winner will face Democratic challenger U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick.

Trump plans to deliver a speech Wednesday in downtown Phoenix, the day after the primary.

The Republican nominee indicated at a Fox News town hall this week that he may soften his stance on immigration by saying he may be willing to work with tax-paying undocumented immigrants. In the past, his immigration stance has included a mass deportation plan and promise to build a giant wall along the southern border that Mexico would be forced to pay for.

Trump's 'softening' immigration view may not broaden Hispanic support

Trump's campaign staff could not immediately be reached for comment.

During a press conference Thursday, Huerta criticized McCain for his refusal to consider President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

McCain has argued that the next president should be allowed to nominate the Supreme Court justice so that the American people can have a say, rather than a lame-duck president with only months left in office.

In June, the Supreme Court, left shorthanded by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February, deadlocked 4-4 in a case challenging Obama's immigration actions.

The actions would have allowed millions of longtime undocumented immigrants with U.S. citizen children or those who came to the U.S. as children to apply for programs removing the threat of deportation and allowing them to receive work permits. As a result of the Supreme Court's deadlock, the programs remained blocked.

If Obama's nominee had been confirmed by the Senate, it's possible the program could have been implemented, Huerta said.

Huerta was joined in urging Latinos to vote against Trump and McCain by several Latino leaders: U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz.; Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo; and state Rep. Rebecca Rios, D-Phoenix.

Trump to highlight party unity in speech in Phoenix on Aug. 31

Calling McCain a "Trumpublican," Gallego accused McCain of turning his back on Latinos in Arizona by endorsing Trump to gain support from right-wing voters.

"McCain has been in the past a friend of the Latino community (but) is now putting our future into the hands, and very small hands, of somebody like Donald Trump, somebody who is dangerous," Gallego said. "It's extremely disappointing."

In response, McCain's campaign released a statement with quotes from Gallego praising McCain's leadership in the Senate's passage in 2013 of a bipartisan immigration bill.

McCain was among four Republican and four Democratic senators known as the "Gang of Eight" who crafted the bill. The bill balanced border security and immigration enforcement measures with a pathway to citizenship for many of the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants.

The bill died in the House. Arizona's junior U.S. senator, Jeff Flake, was also part of the Gang of Eight. He is not up for re-election. Flake has refused to endorse Trump.

“I want to thank our home-state senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, for their leadership and efforts as part of the 'Gang of Eight' who last week introduced a long-awaited comprehensive immigration-reform bill," Gallego said at the time.

This Arizona ZIP code gives more to Donald Trump than any other in the U.S.

McCain's campaign also released a statement by Lea Marquez-Peterson,co-chair of Unidos con McCain, a group of Latino leaders supporting McCain.

"This is another shameful example of partisan, election-year politics. The people 'protesting' John McCain today were the same individuals praising him for leading the fight to pass landmark immigration reform through the U.S. Senate in 2013," Marquez-Peterson said in the statement.

Lizet Ocampo of People for the American Way declined to say how much money the organization is spending on the ads.