PITTSBURGH — Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are seeking a running mate to drum up voters they can find to swing Pennsylvania's precious 19 electoral votes in their direction in the final weeks of the election. Sending them to enemy territory.
Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance held a rally in the Democratic stronghold of Pittsburgh on Thursday, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz staged a riot in rural Lawrence County on Tuesday.
Neither event appeared to attract voters from the opposing camp, but attendees believe the candidates' Rust Belt and rural identity can offset the strong contender's weaknesses in western Pennsylvania. .
Polls show Harris leading Trump by just one point, and Pennsylvania remains too close to decide.
Vance appealed directly to Steel City's worker roots.
He boasted 65% of the Pennsylvania Teamsters that if his union Democratic grandparents were alive today, “Kamala Harris' Democratic Party would leave them behind, and Republican Donald J. Trump would welcome them back.” Deaf,” he said. Support Trump.
Kathy Collins, a special needs life coach in Pittsburgh, explained the Democratic criticism. “The reason unionists don't support them is because they don't have jobs,” she told the Post after the rally. She said her Democratic boilermaker friends are voting Republican for the first time because permitting restrictions have cost them projects and jobs.
But the senator has other appeals as well.
“Vance covers a lot of ground. He's a Yale graduate, so he can connect with the intellect,” Scott Sigmund, a former IT worker who moved to Pittsburgh from Tennessee, told the Post. Vance suggested he could speak the language of college-educated voters in Pittsburgh, a city known for its colleges and universities. hospital.
Stephen Royer said he liked the candidate's ability to deflect attacks and handle media interviews, citing Vance's criticism of ABC's Martha Raddatz for downplaying the threat of immigrant gangs. are.
“It's justice,” Royer told the Post.
Collins added that Vance articulates President Trump's economic and border policies without being cocky.
“He gives a behind-the-scenes look at what President Trump is going to do,” she said, calling him the new and improved Trump.
“JD has what Trump lacks.”
That also applies to Vance's humble origins. Because his mother was addicted to opioids, he was raised by his grandmother in the Rust Belt of Ohio.
“To me, Vance is who we are. I can relate to him. I can't really relate to Mr. Trump,” Sigmund said. “I didn't know about my father, I didn't know that he had been abused by his stepfather, I didn't know that he had joined the military right after graduating from high school,” he explained. After graduating from high school, Vance enlisted in the Marine Corps.
“He's the epitome of America.”
Collins said Vance's roots in rural Kentucky will also serve rural counties surrounding Pittsburgh, such as Washington County.
“You're talking about an agricultural country, a horse country. They had a really hard time with drugs,” she said.
“He's a good old country boy,” said Phyllis Hader, a retired nurse from rural Westmoreland County, east of Pittsburgh. “He's not spoiled.”
Mr. Vance is making up for what Mr. Trump's style has alienated conservative voters.
“I'm not a great person to badmouth anyone,” Collins said, saying it gives leftists ammunition to attack Trump.
“I love him, but he hurt himself. If he had been more careful with what he said, he wouldn't have had as many problems as he did,” Collins said. .
Vance doesn't bring a big audience, but he gets Trump in his element, she said.
“JD is going to help the entire Republican Party,” she said. “Next time, we want Vance to be president.”
While Vance was in the city this week, Walz went to the red farmland of Volant to take aim at the very voters alienated by Trump's brash ways.
“They're trying to appeal to rural voters,” said Corinne, a professor from near Harlandsburg who asked not to give her last name to protect her job.
Walz told a crowd of more than 100 people about his upbringing in a small town in Nebraska, where he drove tractors and shot guns.
“She has values that appeal to people who don't like President Trump but don't think there are any better options,” Collin said of Harris.
Corinne left the Republican Party when Trump first ran for office in 2015 and started voting for Democrats, but her Republican parents still cannot vote for Trump.
“They never liked him. They're conservative Christians,” she said.
The Democratic Party is “becoming an inclusive tent,” she says, but her parents didn't attend the Walz rally in 2016, which was a blue island in a county that had a 62% approval rating for Trump. For years. ”
But Joe Rogan, president of the Ohio Farmers Union, is glad Walz is here.
The Democratic Party points out that most farmers are voting for Trump because they oppose the Biden-Harris administration's plan to open borders, adding, “If you don't show up, you can't expect to get votes from anyone.'' said.
He said he likes Walz, and that the candidate understands how corporate consolidation in the food sector is hurting farmers, but doesn't usually listen to such economic explanations. added.
Rick Telles learned that when he unsuccessfully ran against Republican Rep. Mike Kelly in 2022.
Telles voted for Trump in 2016 and criticized Trump's trade war with China and other economic policies in 2020. He voted for Biden and hosted Walz at his farm this week.
Telles' father said Telles received eight votes in the borough of 200 people.
“Farmers as consumers are brand loyal,” the former candidate said.
