ERIE – Vice President Kamala Harris packed the arena Monday night in Erie, Pennsylvania, a swing corner of a key swing state in the 2024 presidential election.
Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, told thousands of viewers: “You are a key county.”
“How you all vote in the presidential election often ends up predicting the outcome across the country,” Harris said.
Harris, attacking the GOP nominee, former President Donald Trump, insisted the crowd watch Trump’s recent rallies and interviews.
“Please play the clip,” she said, before compilations of Trump’s performances were shown on two vast screens in the arena.
Several of them showed him talking about the “enemy from within,” including Sunday interview on Fox News, where he stated that “radical leftist lunatics” could “be defeated very easily, if necessary, by the National Guard or, if truly necessary, by the military.”
Obama, Trump, Biden
Erie County, on the northwestern tip of Pennsylvania, with a population of just under 270,000, has been a key county in a battleground state over the past several presidential elections.
In 2012, former President Barack Obama won a majority of voters in Lakeside County. In 2016, the county turned to Trump. In 2020, only 1319 voters gave President Joe Biden victory over Trump, turning the county blue again.
According to her campaign, this is Harris’ seventh visit to Western Pennsylvania.
On Monday evening, Trump was on the other side of the state and spoke in Upper Providence Township, 28 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Trump cuts tiny town hall in suburban Philadelphia after medical emergencies in the audience
Mail-in voting is already underway in the Keystone State – one of the few that will determine who wins the Oval Office. The others are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Both Harris and Trump campaigns sweep Pennsylvania – Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate, was surprised Saturday in Johnstown, where in response to a question he said States Newsroom called what happened in January 2021 a “peaceful transfer of power.”
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will hold a campaign rally in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
Atmosphere like at a party
Long lines began forming outside the arena four and a half hours before Harris’ Monday rally.
A DJ played party music inside as spectators filled the floor and stands of the approximately 9,000-seat arena.
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania told the thunderous crowd, “Erie, my God, did you show up.”
“There’s national media here and you want to know why? Because you choose the next president,” Fetterman said.
Walz is campaigning in Erie, an influential county in Pennsylvania
“Erie is now the most important county in the country, not just in Pennsylvania. The whole nation is thinking about you right now and wondering where you’re going to go,” Fetterman continued to cheers. “And we know what you will do, and you will make sure Harris and Walz are the team to lead our nation.”
“Born from personal experience”
Harris spoke for just under half an hour, emphasizing her usual themes of a middle-class upbringing and her vision for an “opportunity economy.”
She unveiled her platform of tax cuts for newborn parents, first-time home buyers and entrepreneurs, as well as a policy plan to “eliminate corporate price gouging.”
Harris also unveiled her plan to expand Medicare to aid pay for in-home senior care so that “more seniors can live at home with dignity.”
“And like many of my priorities, it was born from personal experience,” she said, leading up to a story about how she cared for her mother, who died colon cancer in 2009
“But far too many people who want and need to care for family members – you either have to quit your job or spend whatever you have to to qualify for Medicaid. It’s not right.”
“I will always put my middle-class and working family first. I come from a middle class background and I will never forget where I come from,” Harris said as the crowd began chanting “U.S.A.”
Harris also told the crowd that Trump is endangering the health insurance coverage of tens of millions of Americans with his platform of changing the Affordable Care Act.
Harris is implementing a policy plan for black men, focusing on economic and social opportunity
During the only presidential debate of the election cycle, the former president he said had a “blueprint concept” to replace the insurance program that ushered in the era of insured medical care for pre-existing conditions.
“The seriousness of this situation cannot be underestimated. Think about it and let’s go back to the times we all remember when insurance companies could deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Do you remember what it was? Well, we’re not going back,” she said, echoing common protest chants at her events.
‘Brutally stern’ consequences
Harris sharply criticized Trump, calling him a “disrespectful man” with a “completely different plan” if he wins in November.
“But the consequences of him becoming president again are brutally serious,” she said.
The vice president highlighted the U.S. Supreme Court’s July opinion that granted former presidents immunity for basic constitutional duties and presumptive immunity for other actions except personal actions.
“Now imagine Donald Trump without the guardrails,” she said. “The one who vowed to be a dictator from day one and to use the Department of Justice as a weapon against his enemies.”
The Republican response
The Republican National Committee released a statement ahead of Harris’ rally in Erie, specifically attacking her over energy policy.
“The Keystone State will reject another four years of Kamala Harris’ dangerously liberal policies because Pennsylvanians trust President Trump to unleash American energy and provide economic relief,” read a statement from RNC Chairman Michael Whatley.
In a press release on Monday, the Trump campaign attacked the vice president on two fronts. The campaign accused her of participating in an “anti-fracking crusade” and of “failing to reach black voters.”
Harris on Monday introduced an “Agenda of Opportunity for Black Men” that would legalize recreational marijuana and introduce a “regulatory framework for cryptocurrency,” according to a press release from Harris’ campaign.
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