To a neighborhood, unionized target audience, Vice President Kamala Harris steered supporters to end up, whilst contrasting herself with Trump.
ERIE, Pa.—Erie County has voted for each and every profitable presidential candidate since 2008, a truth no longer misplaced on Vice President Kamala Harris, who visited town of Erie on Oct. 14 to rally supporters with a marketing campaign speech.
With such slim margins and Pennsylvania’s 19 Electoral Faculty votes—the most important of any battleground state—at stake, Harris’s central message in Erie used to be about voter turnout. She requested her supporters to make plans for when to vote and shared explicit vote casting directions.
“The way you all vote in presidential elections incessantly finally ends up predicting the nationwide outcome,” Harris mentioned. “You’ll vote early in particular person on the Erie County Voter Registration Place of work from now till Tuesday, October 29, and so now’s the time to make your plan to vote.
“You probably have already won your poll within the mail, please don’t wait. Fill it out and go back it lately.”
The rally, held on the Erie Insurance coverage Enviornment downtown, used to be attended by way of a in large part native target audience, together with unionized staff from town’s production sector. They advised The Epoch Occasions they believed that Harris will be the perfect candidate to reinforce production jobs within the space—a subject that Trump has vowed to deal with together with his pro-tariff platform.
“I don’t assume price lists are the solution,” mentioned John Knob, a 74-year-old retired worker of Common Electrical and union member of the United Electric, Radio, and Device Staff of The usa Native 506 in Erie.
“[We need] higher industry relationships with different international locations,” Knob mentioned. Harris ought to concentrate on “most probably renegotiating a few of our offers with different international locations,” he mentioned.
Gary Grack, a Provider Staff Global Union Native 22 of Firemen and Oilers member mentioned, “Unions are essential in Erie County. [I’ve] been a union guy my complete lifestyles. Now, I’m a small industry proprietor, [and] I really like the whole lot [Harris] says.
“Return to Bidenomics. The inventory marketplace, the Dow, the whole lot is booming, and 401(ok)s are doing smartly.” Grack blamed any problems in the price of dwelling on “worth gouging by way of the grocers and massive oil.”
Gary Grack (L), his spouse, Patty Pilatus Grack (C), and buddy Heather Ulmer on the Erie Insurance coverage Enviornment, the place Vice President Kamala Harris held a rally in Erie, Pa., on Oct. 14, 2024. Arjun Singh/Epoch Occasions
Harris addressed many of those subject matters all through her 30-minute speech, along abortion and tax credit for fogeys with small children.
A big percentage of her speech used to be dedicated to contrasting her insurance policies with Trump’s document and portraying him as a danger to democracy.
She exhibited a video with clips of Trump’s remarks at rallies the place he disparaged political combatants with allegedly violent language. Trump has mentioned Democrats’ quotations of him had been introduced with out related context that informs their that means.
Harris concluded the 30-minute speech with Democrats’ marketing campaign slogan this 12 months: “Combat for a greater long term. As a result of once we combat, we win.”