Thousands turn out for Kamala Harris rally in Erie, a key swing county

By Jonathan D. Salant and Hallie Lauer / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

ERIE — In her first-ever campaign visit to pivotal Erie County, Vice President Kamala Harris emphasized her plans to improve the economy and build the middle class while also going on the attack against former President Donald Trump, who carried the county eight years ago en route to carrying Pennsylvania and winning the White House.

Trump, she said, “has no plans for how he’d address the needs of the American people and American families. Folks, it’s time to turn the page.”

She emphasized the opportunity to elect “a new and optimistic generation of leadership.”

“One of the highest forms of patriotism is to fight for the ideals of our country,” Ms. Harris said at the Erie Insurance Arena, which holds about 9,400 people and was her largest crowd thus far in Western Pennsylvania. Except for obstructed seats and an area reserved for the media, the place was packed.

“We’re all here together because we know what’s at stake,” she said. “We are here together because we love our country,” she said to chants of “USA, USA.”

Ms. Harris’ visit to Erie highlighted how the county has become a bellwether in Pennsylvania. Erie County voters swung from Democrat Barack Obama in 2012 to Trump in 2016 to Democrat Biden in 2020, backing the winner of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes in all three elections.

“If you win Erie, you win Pennsylvania and you’re the next president,” U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told the crowd before Ms. Harris spoke.

During her speech, a giant video screen showed clips of Trump calling opponents the “enemy from within” and calling for “one rough hour” to handle them, including calling out the U.S. military.

“He’s talking about that he considers anybody who doesn't support him or does not bend to his will an enemy of our country,” Ms. Harris said. “Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged and he is out for unchecked power. He wants to send the military after American citizens.”

The crowd broke out in a chant of “Lock him up!” — an echo of one of the favorite chants at Trump events during his campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Ms. Harris held up her hand to stop the chant and said, “The courts can handle that. … Let us handle November, shall we?”

Trump’s Pennsylvania spokesman, Kush Desai, said the rally won’t “move the needle for her failing campaign. Erie County will prove itself to be Trump Country when it votes for a return to the peace, prosperity, and stability of the first Trump presidency in November.”

Still, some of the thousands who lined up in the brisk October weather to hear Ms. Harris crossed party lines to do so.

Raymond Dietz, a retired public-school teacher from rural upstate New York, said he has been a registered Republican his entire life. So have his closest neighbors and friends, he said. This year, they’re all voting for Kamala Harris, he said.

“Because I undoubtedly am not going to join a cult,” Mr. Dietz said outside the arena Monday. “If there’s one thing the founding fathers were afraid of, it was Donald Trump. That’s why we have the Electoral College.

“If we elect Donald Trump, we throw away the founding fathers’ dreams for America,” he said.

Though Mr. Dietz’s vote for Ms. Harris won’t help her win Pennsylvania, a pivotal swing state that many on both sides of the aisle have claimed is key to winning the election, he wasn’t the only Republican in line to see Ms. Harris.

Another lifelong Republican, David Minor, a retired letter carrier, said the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection by supporters of the former president is one of his main reasons for not voting for Trump.

“What happened on Jan. 6 should have disqualified him,” Mr. Minor said.

Mr. Minor attended the rally with his family and longtime friend Vince Baldi, a Democrat who was sporting a T-shirt that had the cops blocking the roads asking if he was going to be causing problems.

From a distance, Mr. Baldi’s shirt looked like the Trump 2024 logo — but up close, the wording actually said, “Trump 20 - 24 years in prison.”

Mr. Baldi made the shirt himself.

“I hope it really happens,” he said, referring to the prison sentence suggested by his apparel. “Trump is a criminal.”

Another attendee, Cheyenne Robasky, 21, said she wasn’t there just to oppose Trump but also to wholeheartedly support Ms. Harris.

“It’s very exciting to see a woman step up in what is thought to be a man’s world,” she said. “It’s really nice to be represented in a way that men can’t, or won’t.”

It was Ms. Robasky’s first political rally and came shortly before she will cast her first vote.

She attended with her friend and co-worker Rachel Ramsey, and both women, from Greenville, said that women’s rights were one of the main reasons they were supporting Ms. Harris.

“And she’s not a felon,” Ms. Ramsey added.

Opponents of abortion rights stood across the street protesting Ms. Harris’ appearance. The group of about 10 protesters carried signs reading, “Vote Pro-Life” and “Abortion is not health care.”

On the other side of the arena, a small contingent of “Democrats for Trump” gathered, holding signs and taking photos of the crowds. They declined to comment.

Following two attempted assassinations of Trump, security was heightened, with multiple snipers on the roof of the arena, and a drone flying over the crowd.

Before arriving at the arena, Ms. Harris visited LegendErie Records and Coffee House, a Black-owned small business in a strip mall a few miles south of downtown Erie, where she talked to Black men from the area, according to pool reports.

Polls show Ms. Harris, the first Black woman and first South Asian to run for president as the nominee of a major political party, not doing as well with Black voters — especially Black men — as President Joe Biden did in 2020 when he narrowly carried Pennsylvania, the most populous swing state.

While Ms. Harris led Trump, 81% to 16%, among likely Black voters in a recent New York Times/Siena College/Philadelphia Inquirer poll, Mr. Biden outpolled Trump, 87% to 12%, in 2020, according to network exit polls.

Former President Barack Obama, before a get-out-the-vote rally at the University of Pittsburgh last Thursday, scolded Black men who he said were not as enthusiastic about voting for Ms. Harris as they should be.

He said it appears that “you just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you're coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that,” he said. He said it was “not acceptable” that they were “thinking about sitting out or supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you, because you think that’s a sign of strength, because that’s what being a man is?”

Earlier Monday, Ms. Harris unveiled a series of proposals designed to help Black men in particular, including forgivable loans for entrepreneurs; education, training, and mentorship programs to help Black men get jobs, including teaching positions; cryptocurrency regulations; a focus on diseases that disproportionately affect Black men such as sickle cell, diabetes, mental health, and prostate cancer; and legalizing cannabis and allowing Blacks to be part of that industry.

Continuing to showcase how the Keystone State is to the Democrats’ chances of winning the presidency this fall, Ms. Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, is to arrive in Western Pennsylvania on Tuesday, first stopping in Lawrence and Butler counties before attending a rally and a fundraiser in Pittsburgh.