Vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine will travel to Arizona where he will conduct a rally entirely in Spanish this week, as Democrats hope to appeal to Latino voters in an effort to swing the state for Hillary Clinton.

Kaine, who speaks fluent Spanish after spending time as a missionary in Honduras, will arrive in Phoenix on Thursday as part of a Democratic effort to compete in states traditionally won by the GOP. He'll also participate in a get-out-the-vote event in Tucson.

The speech is being billed by the campaign as the first all-Spanish event by a major party nominee in a U.S. election. Kaine, a senator from Virginia, is credited with giving the first speech in the language on the Senate floor.

Kaine's visit will come a day after Clinton is due to travel to Arizona for a rally and to encourage in-person early voting.

By putting both halves of the ticket in the state just a few days before the election, Clinton's campaign is signalling that its effort there isn't simply to make Republican nominee Donald Trump play defense in what should be friendly territory but an indication Democrats believe the state is genuinely within reach.

In recent weeks, first lady Michelle Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont appeared in Arizona on Clinton's behalf. And earlier this month, the campaign announced it would spend $2 million there to dramatically increase its television, digital and direct-mail efforts.

Kaine has been heavily featured in the campaign's outreach on Spanish-language media, including battlegrounds Florida and Nevada, which also have large Hispanic populations.

"That's been one of the most fun parts of the campaign, to be able to do Spanish-language radio, TV, newspapers and also just to go to places and just interact with people that way," he told the Associated Press last week.

The Associated Press reports Kaine has done about 50 interviews in Spanish since joining the ticket, which could give the campaign a boost since some 20 percent of Hispanic adults in the U.S. get their news exclusively from Spanish-language outlets, according to analysis by the Pew Research Center in 2012.

Since 1948, Democrats have won Arizona just once, when President Bill Clinton narrowly edged Bob Dole there. Recent polls show the race is a genuine toss-up, with Clinton claiming half a point edge in the RealClearPolitics average .