Undecided Pennsylvania Voters Want to Know More About Kamala Harris

Paul Johnson voted for Donald Trump in 2016 but believed he lost his first term, so in 2020 Johnson voted for Joe Biden.

Now the retired contractor from West Oak Lane isn’t sure what to do in the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I don’t think America is ready for Kamala,” Johnson, 62, said. “And I think we’ve had enough of dealing with Trump, but if we had a choice now, we might have to give Trump a chance. He was president once and … he did a lousy job, but I don’t think Kamala can handle the diplomatic part of being president.”

Johnson is among a petite but influential group of undecided voters in Pennsylvania who say they plan to enter the race but have not yet made up their minds.

About 4% of likely voters in the state are undecided, according to a recent Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena College poll. The same number of people were undecided as in a similar survey conducted in Pennsylvania in August. When third-party options are taken into account, about 2% of voters are unsure.

Pennsylvania is a highly coveted swing state that he won by just over a percentage point in 2020 and by a fraction less in 2016. It increasingly looks crucial to Harris’ chances of winning the presidency and to Trump’s path to blocking her and securing another term.

Although the huge majority of voters know who they support, the election outcome can come down to a conflict between a few people who, for reasons that are often personal, ideological or specific to their own situation, are torn between two completely different visions of the country, lean towards an independent candidate or are unsure whether they will vote at all.

In Pennsylvania, the petite group of undecided voters is evenly split across age, gender and geographic groups. Most are independents, and the group is slightly overrepresented by nonwhite voters without college degrees, although the sample size — about 40 people in a survey of 1,000 — is remarkably petite.

Johnson has concerns about how Harris, the first female leader of the United States, will be received internationally.

“She was vice president, but she didn’t have a lot of power. There are people like Putin and Kim Jong Un who don’t respect women, let alone black women,” said Johnson, who is black. “We need someone strong. Attorney general is one thing, but running a country is another.”

Johnson said another debate would facilitate him make a decision, though Trump has said his first and only debate with Harris would be his last.

“She needs to show herself more, stop telling these stories about how she’s going to stop shrinkflation. I want to know more about Kamala,” he said.

Johnson is not alone in that desire. About a quarter of Pennsylvania voters said they want to know more about Harris, who has been vice president for almost four years but has only been the party’s nominee since Aug. 6.

While Johnson is torn between the two candidates, Daniele Fedonni, a 34-year-old biostatistician from South Philadelphia, this is a progressive voter who feels left out by Harris’ more moderate positions, particularly what he sees as a delicate response to the atrocities in Gaza.

“She’s pro-fracking, she’s anti-Medicare for All… she’s running on building a wall — one of the most disgusting policies of Trump that every Democrat has ever opposed,” Fedonni said. “She’s talking about defunding all the cops while they’re shooting people for dodging tolls in New York City.”

Fedonni said he believes the “lesser evil” is a false comparison and is considering not voting in the presidential race.

For Kayla Mann, the conflict is whether to vote for Harris or give up altogether during a traumatic year for her family. Mann and her 11-year-old son lived with their grandmother until the family matriarch died last year and became homeless. They now live in a shelter in North Philadelphia, and Mann tries to save money by working at another shelter for people with disabilities.

“The statement that Kamala made during the debate where she said she would rather build the middle class, well, why are so many people living in poverty now?” said Mann, 27. “Why can’t so many people afford to stay in their homes? … Some can’t finish school, so I feel like if it’s about the middle class, what about the working class?”

Mann, whose dream is to become a veterinary technician or veterinary assistant, tried to get into college to become an X-ray technician or medical assistant, but juggling childcare and work made it hard.

As a sexual assault survivor, she said she cares about women’s reproductive rights and thinks Harris will fight to protect them.

But Mann said she was concerned about Harris’s past in law enforcement and feared he might protect officers who abuse their authority. (Harris co-authored the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act, which includes provisions that would lower the standard of proof in police abuse cases and limit qualified immunity for officers.)

“It’s sad that I have to talk to my son about certain things and certain activities when he goes out into the world,” Mann said. “He’s only 11.”

Ultimately, she said she would also like to see more of the Democratic nominee.

“I would like to hear her say, ‘Listen, we’re all in this together. We all have to come together — and I see you.’ I think then I could be more inclined toward Kamala. Maybe.”