PHILADELPHIA- Philadelphia Democrats gathered at South on N. Broad Street for lunch Tuesday. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, who is also the Democratic Party’s 50th District chairwoman, said she was “very excited” about the turnout she saw in the city.
“So if it turns out to be Philly, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montco, we win this election,” Parker told reporters Tuesday afternoon.
Parker said she was asked what numbers she expected for Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I have between 650 (650,000) and seven (700,000),” Parker said.
In 2020 presidential electionsJoe Biden received 603,000 votes in Philadelphia, the highest total of all the state’s 67 counties.
“You have to feel it. It’s a tangible energy,” Parker added. “It can’t be manufactured. It comes from the ground up.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he likes Harris’ chances
“I said it in the last few days. I’d rather be us than them,” Shapiro said. “I think Kamala Harris has shut down really strongly. I think our effort on the ground has been truly unparalleled, I think in the last decade.
“What we’re seeing right now is just anecdotal, but very high early-day turnout, especially here in Philadelphia. That’s why I feel really good,” he added. “I’m not trying not to read too much into what you see, you know, anecdotally, in different snapshots and communities. But I feel good.”
However, when asked whether higher voter turnout benefits one party, Shapiro replied, “We’ll see.”
Shapiro also told reporters that he believed election results should have been announced more quickly due to better technology, more equipment, more practice, a change in state law requiring counties to count continuously rather than interrupted, and fewer mail-in ballots compared with the 2020 presidential election. choice.
“I think all this together should speed up the count,” he said.
State Sen. Sharif Street (Philadelphia), who serves as chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, believes Harris will exceed Philadelphia’s vote share and margin of victory compared to the previous presidential election.
Street also discussed areas of the state that he believes will play a massive role in determining the winner of the statewide races.
“I think the Lehigh Valley is always important. You want to see what’s happening in Lehigh and Northampton counties,” Street told reporters. “I think we want to check, Erie has historically been a belligerent county. Of course, Allegheny turnout is almost as important as Philadelphia turnout. And then our suburbs, and I think the Democratic vote in our suburbs will be out of the question and will turn out to be big.”
Street also told reporters he thought their party would benefit in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
“I think we will retain control of the state House and increase our number of seats in the state Senate,” Street said. “And it’s not impossible that we could flip the Senate.”
“It’s not unthinkable, but… it will be difficult, but I think that tomorrow we will definitely have more seats in the Senate than today,” he added.
Street told reporters that state Rep. Patty Kim (D-Dauphin) will win the state Senate seat in Dauphin County and believes Democratic challengers Nicole Ruscitto and Jim Wertz will also have a chance to win their races.
State Representative Danilo Burgos (Philadelphia) is chairman Pennsylvania Latino Legislative Caucus. He told the Capital-Star on Tuesday that he believed the city’s Latino areas were motivated by “racist comments” the comedian made on Trump rally at Madison Square Garden, October 27.
“The very next day, early in the morning, people started asking for posters. People started asking: How can we help? And… it’s great that we were able to wake up a sleeping giant in the Latino community, especially in the Puerto Rican community,” Burgos said.
“That hate rally at Madison Square Garden, where speaker after speaker said bad things about Americans, talked bad about Latinos, and then the joke was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he added.
U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (R-Philadelphia) said Northeast Philadelphia will play a role in the election.
“If Northeast Philadelphia were its own city, it would be the second-largest city in the state and it’s a very competitive area,” Boyle told the Capital-Star.
Boyle said he was proud of the fact that he outperformed the top Democratic seats in his district, which he said shows there are many swing voters in that region of the city and in Bucks County, adjacent to northeast Philadelphia.
“I would not have been elected first to the state legislature and then to Congress if it had not been for door-to-door campaigning. “I think retail still matters there and relationships still matter,” Boyle said. “And I expect Northeast Philadelphia will continue to be, as it has been for many decades, a very competitive place electorally.”
And because this is the first presidential election since the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Boyle added, working-class women who are concerned about the cost of living and abortion rights are gravitating toward the Democratic Party.
“I’ll be curious as to when, at exactly 8:00, you’ll be able to start getting the first results out of the machines. There are a few circuits that I will be watching very closely,” Boyle said.
Northeast Philadelphia is also home to a significant union presence.
Ryan Boyer, business director of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Council and business director of the Workers’ District Council, told reporters he believes Labor’s influence in the upcoming election is “phenomenal” and cited the number of doors election workers are knocking on.
“Every day we had over 400 workers, carpenters, truck drivers, electricians, everyone you could think of knocking on doors. AFL-CIO, our brothers and sisters in public service,” Boyer told reporters. Harris has won most of the support from unions, but not all rank-and-file members will follow his lead. When asked about this, Boyer replied that “some of them” would vote for Trump.
“But we believe that if we talk to all of our rank-and-file employees, we’ll be in the low 80s and early 70s.” – Boyer said. “And what is our chance every time we knock on the door 7.5 out of 10 and come out. So we’re going to knock on every door and we’re trying to communicate to those who don’t do it to let them know that they’re voting against their own interests.”
