U.S. Presidential Election 2024: Kamala Harris campaigns neighborhood by neighborhood in Philadelphia
Steph Deschamps / October 29,
In the final stretch of an extraordinarily close race for the White House, Kamala Harris campaigned on Sunday in neighborhood after neighborhood in Philadelphia, the big city of one of the states most important for final victory, Pennsylvania.
With polls showing the Democratic nominee and her Republican opponent Donald Trump neck-and-neck, the Vice President of the United States combed the streets of the predominantly Democratic city to grab every possible vote in the state.
Stop after stop, she hugs constituents, cuddles babies, courts customers in local businesses and quotes Scripture in an African-American church, on her 14th visit to Pennsylvania, her seventh to Philadelphia, the cradle of American democracy.
In the black neighborhoods of the city's west end, Kamala Harris stops off at a hairdresser's and then a bookshop.
“I'm so glad to see you,” she says to an elderly woman, before embracing her and confiding, ”they give me a run for my money.” This was an allusion to her increasingly venomous duel with Donald Trump, who insults her at length at meetings, and whom she herself has described as a fascist.
Of the seven most hotly contested states that will decide the election, Pennsylvania, which also includes rural and deindustrialized areas, offers the most electoral votes (19) needed to win.
“Here in Philadelphia, we like to touch, feel, listen, see people and be warm to them,” appreciates Myrda Scott, a 43-year-old African-American voter waiting for the candidate at a recreation center rally.
Donald Trump also campaigned extensively in Pennsylvania, in his more rural homeland, among conservative white Christians, but also seeking to compete with his rival among African-Americans who normally lean Democratic.