UPPER MAKEFIELD TOWNSHIP — Vice President Kamala Harris, joined on stage by Republican Party supporters where George Washington crossed the Delaware River, delivered a speech Wednesday focused on unity and winning over voters from across the aisle.
“In a typical election year, having all of you here with me might be a little surprising. “Dare I say, extraordinary,” Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, laughed. “But not in this election.”
“Because what is at stake in this race are the Democratic ideals that our founders and generations of Americans before us fought for,” she added. “At stake in this election is the Constitution of the United States, itself.”
Washington Crossing Historic Park is a Bucks County site that played a key role in the Revolutionary War. Bucks is the only purple county in the Philadelphia suburbs and is expected to play a key role in the presidential election once again.
Harris pledged to work together to find solutions, while accusing former President Donald Trump, her opponent, of not being sedate about solving the problems facing the nation.
“Unlike Donald Trump, who, frankly, as we’ve seen, cares more about solving problems than solving problems,” she said, “I want to solve problems, and that means working across the aisle. This requires working across the aisle. This requires accepting good ideas wherever they come from.”
She criticized Trump for his actions leading up to January 6 and accused him of “increasing instability and imbalance.” She added that if elected, Trump would “attack” journalists, nonpartisan election officials and judges he doesn’t like.
At Fox News town hall, Trump claims to be the “father of in vitro fertilization” among women voters.
Harris said she was committed to appointing a Republican to her Cabinet and that she would also create a “Council for Two-Party Solutions.” She said: “Nobody has any good ideas. They actually come from many places and you should, especially if you want to be a leader, welcome these ideas.”
“And these ideas that are specifically about strengthening the middle class, securing our borders, defending our freedoms and maintaining our leadership in the world,” she added.
Harris, a lifelong Democrat, said her favorite committee while serving in the U.S. Senate was the Intelligence Committee and praised the bipartisan work they did.
“All of this also means that I think for America to be the strongest democracy in the world, we must have a healthy two-party system,” Harris applauded. “Because when we have a healthy two-party system, leaders are required to debate the merits of policy and work across the aisle regularly and routinely to get things done.”
Former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said on stage Wednesday that Harris shares his “fidelity to the rule of law, the Constitution and democracy.”
“Whatever policy we disagree on pales in comparison to basic issues of principle, decency and loyalty to the nation,” Kinzinger said.
He added that because of these policies, Harris was the “conservative choice” in the upcoming election.
Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Whatley responded to Harris’ event, quoting: Policy an article published Wednesday that said some Pennsylvania Democrats were concerned about campaign activities in Philadelphia.
“Kamala Harris’ unsuccessful campaign efforts in Pennsylvania, coupled with President Trump’s vision to make America strong, safe and great again, is why she is winning the Keystone State,” Whatley said. “While Kamala and the Democrats point fingers and blame each other for the first time in 30 years, more Americans identify as Republicans because they trust President Trump and Republicans to vote.”
Harris supporters on GOP support
Only a few hundred people attended Wednesday’s campaign event.
Bob and Kristina Lange are family farmers from Malvern, lifelong Republicans and former Trump voters. On Wednesday, they opened for Harris and performed at many digital ads aimed at rural voters in Pennsylvania.
“January 6 was the last straw for me,” Bob Lange said on stage.
The Langes told reporters that after expressing support for Harris, some Republicans criticized their decision and “extended us with their friendship.”
“You know, it’s unfortunate,” Bob Lange told the Capital-Star. “But I have to tell you, the support we have had from people coming to our farmers market has been overwhelming.”
They are positive about Harris’ chances in the upcoming election.
“I have a really good feeling because I think ordinary Republicans when they get there will just shake their heads and say, ‘Not this time,'” Bob Lange said.
Former Republican Congressman Jim Greenwood, who represented a Bucks County seat in the House from 1993 to 2005, is co-chair of the Pennsylvania Republicans on Harris’ behalf and travels the state promoting Harris’ campaign.
Although Democratic candidates for statewide office performed well in recent elections in Bucks County, Republicans recently regained the advantage Bucks County voter registration advantage over Democrats for the first time since 2007.
“So registration is a thing and it’s important, but it’s really going to tell everything about how many people turn out to vote,” Greenwood told the Capital-Star. “You know, a lot of people will be at the Grange fair and register to vote. But that doesn’t mean they will necessarily leave.”
Over the decades, Bucks County has had a wealthy history of ticket splitting. Greenwood won the seat as a Republican and Bill Clinton won the district in the 1990s, and in 2020, Republican Brian Fitzpatrick won re-election to Congress while Democrat Joe Biden carried the county.
Biden defeated Trump in Bucks County by 4 points 2020although Hillary Clinton won the county by less than 1 point 2016 presidential elections.
Greenwood told the Capital-Star to keep an eye on downtown Bucks County on election night.
“We would like to look at the townships and counties of Doylestown, Solebury, Buckingham and Northampton,” he said, citing higher-income neighborhoods with high concentrations of college graduates. “I think you’re going to see a lot of split tickets in Central Bucks County.”
According to the campaign, Harris has 10 campaign offices in Philadelphia counties, including three in Bucks County.
Andrew Macaulayis the Democratic Party supervisor in Warrington, Bucks County, which he describes as a very “purple” area.
He supports Harris’ campaign reaching out to Republicans and believes there will be many “non-MAGA Republicans” who will skip the presidential ticket but then vote for a “pretty standard Republican” on the ballot.
“I think a lot of Republicans are still Republicans at their core, they’re not that version of the Republican Party, so I think we’re going to get a pass in this election and the Democrats are going to have to prove themselves again because ‘you’re fighting with crazy pants,’” he told Capital -Star.
Zach Dowhower, a Philadelphia native and lifelong Pennsylvanian, is also a Democrat who welcomes the Harris campaign’s efforts to woo Republicans. He told the Capital-Star that he thought “motivating these people is, I think, the way to unite a coalition like Pennsylvania.”
Dowhower mentioned that his father is a lifelong Republican who did not support Trump, but said this was the first time he thought he was “excited” to vote for a Democrat in Kamala Harris.
“I think the rhetoric from the right is just pushing it to the point where it doesn’t feel like a party that it can align itself with,” Dowhower told the Capital-Star.
Walz is campaigning in rural areas of western Pennsylvania ahead of the Pittsburgh rally
Robert Schwartz, senior adviser to Haley Voters for Harris, told the Capital-Star that he recently launched a seven-figure advertising campaign aimed at drumming up support for Harris. The organization is focused on winning over voters who may have supported former UN ambassador Nikki Haley in the primaries.
“Our message is very simple,” he said. “Actually, Kamala Harris deals with issues like the economy and the border, she is center-left, she is not far-left. He’s someone the center-right can feel comfortable electing, whether it’s tax cuts or hiring border agents… things like that.”
“She’s not as extreme a liberal as MAGA would have you believe,” he said.
He quoted A poll released on October 9 by Democratic-leaning pollster Blueprint this showed that 45% of Republicans and independent voters in Haley in the primary supported Trump for president, while 36% supported Harris. In his opinion, this is proof that Haley’s voters can influence the presidential election.
“What we want to say is that Donald Trump never asked for your vote, he doesn’t want your vote,” Schwartz said. “Kamala Harris does that and offers a reasonable solution.”
Haley supports Trump’s candidacy and does so she sharply criticized the attempt to operate her name try to persuade voters to support Harris.
Haley received 158,000 votes16%, in Pennsylvania elementary schools, even though she ended her candidacy a month earlier.
After her speech, Harris participated in a taped interview with Fox News host Bret Baier at Washington Crossing Historic Park.
With 20 days until the Pennsylvania presidential election, everything is expected to be clear, and both campaigns will go all out to capture the state’s 19 electoral votes. National rating agencies describe this state of affairs as a “coup.”
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