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Election 2024
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 * Harris’s policy positions
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A PENNSYLVANIA ROAD TRIP FINDS VOTERS FULL OF DOUBT, ANGER AND UNEASE


Downtown Lock Haven, in Pennsylvania’s Clinton County. (Ricky Carioti/The
Washington Post)


THE POST DROVE 1,000 MILES TALKING TO VOTERS IN THE MOST CRITICAL BATTLEGROUND
STATE AND FOUND WORRIES ABOUT HARRIS, FEARS ABOUT TRUMP AND UNCERTAINTY ALL
OVER.

31 min

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By Dan Balz
Updated October 20, 2024 at 8:24 a.m. EDT|Published October 20, 2024 at 5:00
a.m. EDT

In 2024, the road to the White House runs through Pennsylvania.

Of the seven battleground states, Pennsylvania represents the biggest prize with
19 electoral votes. There is almost no way for Vice President Kamala Harris or
former president Donald Trump to win the election without it.



The focus on Pennsylvania this fall has been singular. The two campaigns have
spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advertisements targeting voters, more
than anyplace else. Rare is the day that Harris or Trump, or their running
mates, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota or Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, are not somewhere in
the state. Often two of the four are there.

Trump won the state in 2016 by 44,000 votes — less than a percentage point — on
his way to an upset victory over Hillary Clinton. Joe Biden carried it in 2020
by about 81,000 votes — a margin of 1.2 percentage points.

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Recent polling has shown the state in a statistical dead heat. The Washington
Post average of polls currently shows Harris 2 percentage points ahead of Trump.
In 2020, the final poll average showed Biden ahead by 4 points, 3 points better
than he did.

Pennsylvania’s two biggest cities, Philadelphia in the east and Pittsburgh in
the west, are Democratic strongholds. Outside of Philadelphia, suburbs that long
elected Republicans have become increasingly Democratic. The counties
surrounding Pittsburgh, however, lean Republican. The rest of the state is
predominantly red. Biden won just 13 of the commonwealth’s 67 counties in 2020.
In 2016, Clinton won just 11.




What follows are dispatches from an October road trip across Pennsylvania: eight
days, seven nights, stops in six counties during more than 1,000 miles of
driving, and conversations with dozens of voters and nonvoters, elected
officials and activists. They included enthusiastic Trump supporters and those
holding their nose to vote for him, college students conflicted about Harris
over the war in the Middle East, union workers who are closely divided over
their choice, Black organizers working to generate more excitement in their
community, and suburban women motivated to elect Harris in a county that is seen
as a bellwether.



To the voters of Pennsylvania, Trump is a known quantity, for better and worse.
Harris is less known, not a blank slate but still a work in progress. Trump
could struggle to bring out the voters he needs to win. Harris’s challenge will
be to alleviate fears of the unknown and overcome a lack of enthusiasm among
some in her coalition.

If Trump wins Pennsylvania, it will be because some of his potential supporters,
who see him as deeply flawed, are more concerned about immigration, inflation
and their negative perceptions of Harris than about Trump’s threats of
retribution, unstable behavior and effort to overturn the 2020 election.

If Harris wins, it will be because she has fully mobilized suburban women;
prevented too many younger voters, particularly Black men, from staying home;
and rallied those who see a second Trump term as potentially destructive to the
future of the country.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


FULTON COUNTY

The reddest little dot in Pennsylvania



The kitchen crew was preparing dinner at the McConnellsburg Volunteer Fire
Company. Large aluminum pots filled the stove and it was almost time to set up
the buffet. What’s on the menu, they were asked. “Ham and turkey,” one of the
workers replied. “Ham and turkey — and Democrats!”

It was Saturday night and the Fulton County Republican Party was holding its
fall dinner. The tables were set with mums and gourds and ribbons. Along one
wall were placards for pickup. One read “Trump Low Taxes. Kamala High Taxes.”
Another said “Trump Secure Border. Kamala Open Border.”

Fulton County sits on Pennsylvania’s southern border, abutting the Maryland
line, in the center of the state. Judy Ward, who represents the area in the
Pennsylvania Senate, described the county in a few words: “Patriotic.
Conservative. God-fearing. And you love President Trump.”

Fulton is small in population — about 14,500 people live there — but it is
politically mighty. For years, Fulton has delivered the highest percentage of
the vote for Republican presidential nominees of any county in the commonwealth.
Trump supercharged things, winning 85 percent of the vote in 2020.

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Dan Swain, who serves as county Republican chairman, offered a description of
the people who live in Fulton. “I would say, like the founders, we believe in a
Creator and believe in God’s law. To me, there’s nothing radical about that at
all.”

In his remarks at the dinner, Swain talked about similarities between this
year’s election and the tumultuous year of 1968. In each case, a Democratic
president stepped aside — Lyndon B. Johnson then, Biden this year. In each case,
the sitting vice president became the nominee — Hubert Humphrey then, Harris
now.

He also noted that there were two assassinations that year — Martin Luther King
Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy — and two attempts on Trump’s life this year. By
coincidence, on this night, Trump was 160 miles to the northwest, in Butler,
returning to the site where an assassin’s bullet grazed his ear in July. Trump
drew tens of thousands of people. In McConnellsburg, the supper crowd numbered
about 75.




At one of the long tables sat Leroy Vickroy. He turned 101 in August. As a young
man, he served in the 25th Infantry Division in World War II. He was in combat
in the Philippines for more than 200 days. Later he worked for the National
Gallery of Art in Washington. Among his jobs was to pick up paintings from
wealthy individuals. On one trip to the Poconos, he came back with $85 million
worth.

“The country is a beautiful country,” he said. “It’s just the nuts in it.” He
spoke glowingly about Trump, recalling a photo of the former president embracing
an American flag. “I think he’s a man who loves his country and he’d give his
life for it.”

At the other end of a nearby table sat Jan Fraker, a retired plumber. He
characterized Fulton County as “backwoods America,” and meant it as a
compliment. He had several complaints about the state of the country under Biden
and Harris and was particularly upset with the amount of money the United States
has sent to aid Ukraine in its war with Russia. He called the war “a hoax.”

“They’re killing innocent people, don’t get me wrong,” he said. “[But if] they
really want to take it over, you don’t think Russia could have had it by now?”

The program included brief speeches by area officials. Jesse Topper, who
represents the area in the Pennsylvania House, mentioned the challenges of
winning in November. “People talk about the cities, the urban spots all the time
— Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Allentown, Pittsburgh,” he said. “But actually,
where we’re losing the most ground is in the suburbs, particularly suburban
women.”

Ward, the senator, amplified Topper’s concern and said there were competitive
state legislative races where Republicans “are getting the snot beat out of
them. [Democrats] are beating them up over abortion.”

Topper and Ward’s message was unmistakable: As Republicans are losing ground in
suburban areas of the commonwealth, it’s more important than ever for the most
Trump-friendly areas to boost turnout even more. “It’s important to get out all
the vote in Fulton,” Ward said.

The dinner ended about two hours after it started, and as people filed out, some
carrying small pots of mums they won as door prizes, there was one final message
on a dark night in this sparsely populated community that sits at the base of a
mountain: “Watch out for deer.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


CENTRE COUNTY

Support, with qualifications, for Harris



The words tumble out one after another, a downbeat assessment of the state of
the country:

“Disheveled.”

“Divided.”

“Messy.”

“Chaotic.”

“Turning point.”

The characterizations came from among eight journalism students at Penn State in
Centre County. Six will cast ballots in a presidential election for the first
time.

They see an economy that offers only middling prospects for people their age
and, most tellingly, a political system that is dysfunctional and dispiriting.
They wonder how the generation in power has let things get to this point.

Brandon Koch said it is “incredibly infuriating” to watch politicians who are
decades older “debate onstage like they’re 10 years younger than you and you
feel like your age group is the much more mature one.”

“It is so hard to see that, like, level of immaturity,” Holly Deemer said. “But
then the people that are of that generation look down on us so much.”

These students saw Trump as a liar, as exhausting, as angry, though one
described him as “polarizing but captivating.” Harris was seen as fresh and
invigorating, though one student called her a “chameleon.”

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Regardless of their party identification, students interviewed at Penn State
predicted Harris will carry the campus vote relatively easily. In 2020, Biden
won the campus precincts with about 70 percent of the vote. Younger voters have
been solidly Democratic in recent elections, here and elsewhere, but this year
there have been fractures among them.

The conversations took place on the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on
Israel. Penn State was not roiled with encampments and ongoing protests, as were
some other campuses, but to mark the day, there was both a pro-Palestinian
demonstration and a candlelight vigil commemorating those killed and taken
hostage, sponsored by Penn State Hillel.

For some campus Democrats, the war in the Middle East has shaped their views of
Harris — negatively. “She won’t change anything about Joe Biden’s sort of
slavish, obsequious policy toward Israel, to [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu
and his far-right government,” said Baybars Charkas, president of the Penn State
College Democrats.

Charkas registered his “disgust” with Harris over the war. “I’m happy with many,
in fact, with most of the decisions that are being taken by the Democratic
Party,” he said. “I wish that they would go further in many instances. But, I
mean, Israel-Palestine isn’t just another policy.”





The war isn’t the only criticism of Harris from these young Democrats. While
others in the party have lauded her for moving away from positions she took as a
presidential candidate in the 2020 election, these students decry her efforts to
move toward the center. Jared Carvajal said he saw her as “capitulating to the
right-wing framing on the border.”

Amber Gordon, the group’s executive vice president, has her own misgivings,
especially over the war. She was among those who joined the pro-Palestinian
demonstration that day. But she said, “We can’t be cynical because that just
helps him [Trump].” If Harris wins, she said, she and others will continue to
push her. “The job’s not over at the election box,” she said.

Leaders of the College Republicans are far less conflicted about Trump than
College Democrats are about Harris. Some part company with his focus on the
false claim of a stolen election in 2020, saying he should look to the future,
not the past. But they agree with him that election integrity is an issue.

The students talked about why they think Trump could make inroads with younger
voters, especially men. Ryan Klein, president of the College Republicans, said
Trump has been smart to reach out to younger men with appearances on the Nelk
Boys podcast, attendance at Ultimate Fighting Championship events and by
espousing what he called “macho, barstool conservatism.”

On many campuses, conservative students are wary of expressing their views.
Hunter Steach said he met Trump at the Republican convention in Milwaukee this
summer and the former president advised him to stand his ground. “He said,
‘Well, the best way you can counteract that is to un-censor yourself and go do
whatever the hell you want. … You can be proudly and unapologetically
conservative.’”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


CLINTON COUNTY

Fears of migrants, questions for Harris



Bill Stankiewicz had never been very active in politics until the morning after
the 2020 election. When he went to bed on election night, Trump had a sizable
lead over Biden in the Pennsylvania vote count. When he awoke, Biden was
suddenly in the lead.

Stankiewicz wondered, how is that possible? He came to believe the election
process was compromised. “I said, ‘Not on my watch.’” He became a poll worker
and eventually threw himself into work for the local Republican Party. This past
winter, the group named him Republican of the Year.

Today he is focused on delivering another sizable majority for Trump in Clinton
County, which sits along the banks of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River
in north-central Pennsylvania, where he says people are “just champing at the
bit to get to the polling booth to vote for Trump.”

Clinton County is conservative country, though in times past it sometimes voted
for Democratic presidential nominees. Bill Clinton carried it twice, and Michael
Dukakis narrowly won it in 1988. Many of those conservative Democrats are now
Republicans, and the county has moved steadily into the Republican camp.

It is counties like these — smaller, rural, remote — where Trump has run up his
vote totals. Here he boosted the Republican share from 55 percent in 2012, when
Mitt Romney was the nominee, to 67 percent in 2020. Harris hopes to shave a few
points off Trump’s margins in these red counties, but it was clear she had more
work to do.





Dave Lohr, a lifelong Democrat, owns a tattoo parlor in Lock Haven. Out shopping
on a gray Monday morning, he expressed his misgivings about his choices this
fall. “It just doesn’t seem like this is what I signed up for.”

Lohr had a low opinion of Harris as vice president and did not think she was
ready to become the Democratic presidential nominee. Referring to the Jan. 6,
2021, attack on the Capitol, he said of Trump: “I definitely feel he incited a
riot. But I feel it’s the devil we know versus the devil we don’t.”

His bottom line: “I don’t even know if I’m going to vote.”

Ron Irvin, a retiree, called Trump “a poor excuse for a human being” and said he
would never vote for him. Yet he might leave the presidential line of his ballot
blank. Though he said Harris was “doing what she should do” as a candidate, he
added, “I just still feel uncomfortable.”

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The previous day, a group gathered at the home of Doc Sweitzer, a longtime
Democratic consultant who grew up in Lock Haven. He now lives in the suburbs of
Philadelphia but keeps a house perched just above the river. The Philadelphia
Phillies had a playoff baseball game that afternoon and several of the
Republicans he had invited had canceled, leaving the group predominantly
Democratic. Its members were looking for signs of hope.

They sat on a patio overlooking the river on a brilliant, sunny Sunday. At one
point a hawk circled overhead. At another came the sound of gunshots. The Second
Amendment is deeply ingrained in the culture of Clinton County. Gun ownership is
commonplace. The most popular way for community organizations of all types to
raise money is to raffle off a gun — or guns.

The conversation ranged across many issues, including the power of immigration
to help Trump. The group agreed that Trump has created fear among people even in
communities where migrants are not prevalent. The sentiment that “they are
coming” is at the heart of it.

Irish and Italian immigrants helped build Lock Haven a century ago, though they
faced discrimination. Now it is farmers who need migrant labor. “We’re not
breaking new ground here,” said Mike Hanna, a former Democratic whip in the
Pennsylvania House. He added, “It’s unfortunate that we don’t do a better job of
educating folks.”





Dan Vilello, a former county commissioner, raised another issue that presents an
obstacle for Harris. He had been at dinner recently with his relatives, most of
them Republican. Many of the men expressed the view that a woman cannot lead the
country, a view with which Vilello disagrees.

That raised the temperature of the discussion on Sweitzer’s porch. Angela
Harding, a Democratic member of the county commission, said: “I’m biting my
tongue. It shows a real strong insecurity among men … that they just can’t
handle the fact that somebody without a penis might be running the country.”

Sweitzer said his informal research suggests that enthusiasm for Trump in the
county is down from four and eight years ago. He predicted that a surge of
female voters was coming, here and elsewhere. Maybe that would be enough for
Harris to gain a few points in areas like this.

But the numbers tell a story of Republican dominance. Hanna said he got excited
when he noticed recently that eight new people in the county had registered as
Democrats. “And then I looked down,” he said, “and there were 65 Republicans.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


ALLEGHENY COUNTY

A fight for working-class voters



There’s a regular clientele at the Moonlite Café, an Italian restaurant in
Pittsburgh with a bar, pool tables and few pretensions. On a recent Tuesday
evening, Marty O’Toole was at the bar with a few friends.

O’Toole is a retired plumber, a member of Local 27 of the Plumbers Union. His
white hair is close cropped, his hands are meaty and his handshake firm. He wore
a black sweatshirt with “Pittsburgh Hockey” emblazoned in yellow letters, along
with crossed hockey sticks.

He is also a Democrat and a supporter of Harris. But he’s seen the drift among
union members toward Trump and he’s not happy about it. “It’s dramatic,” he
explained. “It’s eye-opening. It really pisses me off.” Even one of O’Toole’s
brothers, also a union member, is a Trump supporter.

Election 2024 is about competition for many types of voters. One is the White
working class. It has been shifting away from Democrats for many years. Since
Trump came on the scene, White voters without college degrees — union and
nonunion — and those with them have moved in opposite directions. Stemming the
decline has been a priority for Democrats.

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Pennsylvania has lived through the hollowing out of the steel industry, and the
commonwealth has seen a significant drop in the power of organized labor. In
2020, voters in union households were about 18 percent of the total vote in
Pennsylvania, according to network exit polls, after peaking at 30 percent in
2004.

Those exit polls showed Trump narrowly carrying the union vote in Pennsylvania,
51 percent to 49 percent in 2020. By comparison, in 2012, Barack Obama won the
union vote in the state by 15 percentage points. Even then, Pennsylvania’s union
workers were less Democratic than in some other places. In Michigan in 2012,
Obama carried the labor vote by 33 points.

Democratic strength among union workers remains relatively strong in Pittsburgh,
said Michael Lamb, a former city controller, who was in conversation with
O’Toole. In the counties surrounding the city, Trump has made his most
significant inroads.




Rose Frazier Faust is experiencing this firsthand this fall. She is president of
Local 8042 of the United Steelworkers of America in Saxonburg, located in Butler
County north of Pittsburgh. “I think he [Trump] has an upper hand,” she said.
There are various reasons but she cites one she believes is central. “I hate to
say this, but it’s because he is not Black, he’s not a woman. I do believe
there’s racism there.”

She has been working to mobilize voters but finds resistance to her entreaties
among those favoring Trump. “They don’t want to discuss anything,” she said.
“They’re right and you’re wrong. And that’s it. Nobody really wants to see it
each other’s way, unfortunately.”

Trump has divided even longtime friends and upended traditional loyalties. At
the Moonlite Café, Chuck Alker and Kevin Parsons sat at a table by the wall.
They have known each other for 40 years. Alker is a registered Republican, a
nonunion worker and now supports Harris. Parsons, a captain in the fire
department and union member, is a Democrat. He supports Trump.

“I felt like the lack of respect for police was getting out of control,” Parsons
said. “For example, in the South Side area where I grew up, it’s way worse off
in my opinion under Democratic policies.”

As he talked, Alker kept interjecting, calling into question what his friend
said. Parsons said he thought Obama fostered more division among the races.
“There’s one person that divided this country more than anybody, and that’s been
[Trump],” Alker said. “A leader does not divide.”

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At a table just inside the door sat Sean Laux, bearded and wearing a gray shirt
over a black hoodie. He said he works in energy distribution, pumping and
transferring oil from barges that arrive. He knows Trump’s flaws and is not
turned off by them or by his antics. He thinks it changes few minds for Trump’s
detractors to dwell on such things. “To bring it up is worthless,” he said.

Laux said he lives by “the Good Book and the Constitution” and believes the
country “is in terrible shape.” With things out of control, it’s time “to give
the power back to people.” Trump, he said, “has a better chance” of returning
power to people than Harris.

Colleen Walz overheard some of the conversation and offered a strongly worded
counterview. She is a retired deputy chief in the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire. She
is baffled by Trump’s apparent level of support among working-class voters and
by the International Association of Fire Fighters’ decision not to endorse
anyone for president.

But as a woman in a male-dominated profession, she fears electing a woman
president is “still a tough deal in the United States. Unfortunately, a
misogynistic deal, a sexist and also racist [deal], unfortunately, in many
instances still. I don’t know if we had a White Democratic candidate who was not
Joe Biden, that we would be having this same discussion.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PHILADELPHIA

A push to motivate young Black men



On the Thursday that Obama was at the other end of Pennsylvania, admonishing
young Black men in Pittsburgh for considering not voting for Harris, Jeffery
Young Jr. was in North Philadelphia trying to fix the problem.

“North Philadelphia is typically a place where turnout is low,” he said. “If
we’re trying to get over the top to get the amount of votes that we need for
Vice President Harris, then North Philadelphia has to turn up.”

Black Leadership Pennsylvania, Mobilize Justice, the NAACP, and other labor and
civil rights groups had organized events designed to reach younger Black voters,
especially young men, using celebrities, rappers and athletes as attractions.

Almost everyone agreed that enthusiasm was not where it needed to be. “I think
people are just tired of being lied to, right?” Young said. “They are kind of
fed up with typical elected officials and politicians saying that they’re going
to help — and when you look at their communities, it looks like things are going
backwards.”

Philadelphia traditionally delivers more Democratic votes than anywhere else in
the commonwealth, but turnout has lagged the rest of the state. In the 18 wards
where Black people make up 75 percent of registered voters, turnout peaked in
2008 at 199,747 and declined to 186,059 by 2020. Meanwhile, the Democrats’
margin of victory ticked down. Harris’s campaign has worried that sluggish
turnout in Philadelphia could be especially costly.

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Frustration with government, a sense that promises haven’t been kept, is a
barrier. But there are other issues causing Black voters to question their
loyalty to the Democrats. One is immigration, according to organizers. The
complaint heard in some neighborhoods is, as one person put it, “They’re
[migrants] getting everything and we’re getting nothing.”

Resistance among young Black men is especially apparent, which is why the groups
behind the day’s activities were bringing in celebrities and also developing
content for social media. “Obviously, we’ve got to do something different,” said
Brittany Smith, chair of Black Leadership Pennsylvania.

Among the appeals that don’t work as well as they once did is invoking the civil
rights movement and pointing to those who had marched, been beaten or even died
half a century ago to suggest to the younger generation that it had an
obligation to repay that debt.

“Painting it as an obligation, I don’t think is a way to get young people
engaged,” said Joe Hill, a political strategist and one of the organizers. What
is potentially more effective, he added, is “portraying voting as a way to take
the power in your hands, that you have agency and that you can actually change
it.”




Harris almost certainly will win the overwhelming majority of Black voters,
including young Black men. But Democrats worry that some will stay home and some
will back Trump. Grey Harley, who has been working the area for the Service
Employees International Union, said she’s had any number of Black men express
support for Trump.

When she asks them why, she said they say, “‘Because no woman can tell me what
to do,’ or ‘Women are too emotional’ or ‘I don’t trust her eyes.’ [They say] ‘I
don’t know her. Trump’s always been who he is.’ Some folks trust consistency
rather than the unknown.”

The people who came to a panel discussion about voting, democracy and Black
power that evening at Temple University got a firsthand look at those
sentiments. Those onstage were asked how they were feeling about the election.
“Honestly, I’m afraid,” said rapper Beanie Sigel.

Of Trump, he said: “Everyone’s had knowledge that he’s a racist. Name a
president who wasn’t. … On the other hand, we’ve got Mrs. Harris. … You know, as
a man, I believe women deal with emotions, so when she’s bullied or feels like
she’s being bullied by other people, what’s going to happen? Is she going to
deal with logic and integrity or emotions?”

Angie Martinez, a radio personality who was moderating, pushed back. “I love
that you can be that honest because it’s important that we understand the real
fears out there as we are gearing up to vote. But … there are women in powerful
positions who are beyond capable.”

Sigel would later try to soften his remarks, and he encouraged young Black men
and women to express their voice — and to vote. But the collective response to
what he said — almost a gasp in the audience — was a reminder of why Harris has
been working hard to win the support of part of the most important constituency
in the party.

Jordan Harris, who represents part of Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania House,
said he doubts that defections to Trump will be significant. He also said there
are scores if not hundreds of volunteers on the streets, explaining what the
government has done for the community and reminding people of what democracy
could look like under another four years of Trump.

“I think once you have those real one-on-one conversation or conversations in
places where Black males gather and you’re meeting them with trusted voices,” he
said, “I think they’re getting the message.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


BUCKS COUNTY

The anger and power of suburban women



Every Saturday from April to mid-November, the farmers market stretches along
Hamilton Street in the heart of Doylestown, a small borough in Bucks County
north of Philadelphia.

The market is a gathering place, and a few weeks before Election Day, a group of
mostly women congregated near a table displaying literature for Harris and local
Democrats. Harris’s hopes depend on massive mobilization and turnout of women in
suburban places like this.

Ever since Trump was elected, college-educated women have led the opposition,
driven first by revulsion and now also by the elimination of the constitutional
right to abortion by a Supreme Court that Trump remade with his nominations.
Harris now needs them more than ever.

If Trump dominates the rural and small-town precincts and Harris has strong
support in the two big cities of Pennsylvania, the election could be won or lost
in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia — the four “collar counties” of
Montgomery, Delaware, Chester and Bucks. Biden carried the first three in 2020
with between 58 percent and 63 percent of the vote. In Bucks, he managed just
51.5 percent on his way to winning the state by 1.2 percentage points.

Some people suggest there will be a “shy Harris” vote among women — women who
will reveal their support for her only at the ballot box — that will power her
to victory. Debbie Hahn, who was holding a “Honk for Democracy” sign at one
intersection on a Friday afternoon, is trying to make this a reality in her own
small way. She said: “I even have little Post-it notes that I’ve been putting in
ladies’ restrooms … that say, ‘Your vote is 100% private. Once you’re in the
voting booth, you can vote for whoever you want to.’”

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Katherine Semisch, a retired teacher, would like to believe there is a shy
Harris vote but is more worried about the motivation of men. “I believe that
women see this election as an existential threat in a way that men don’t in the
same numbers,” she said, adding that reproductive rights are more than women’s
rights. “I don’t want to disrupt your innocence, but women only need
reproductive health care when they’ve been consorting with men.”

The women who stop at the table are focused — dialed in, as one put it — and
nervous. Denise Glick, one of the volunteers behind the table, said, “I feel
like we’re on the edge of a cliff and if we fall off of it, I don’t know how we
get back.”

The Democrats were not the first to set up a table at the edge of the Doylestown
market. Trump supporters hold that honor, a sign that they are aggressively
working to mobilize his supporters. Because this is more Democratic turf, the
Trump volunteers are sometimes subjected to harassment. “We get the middle
finger all the time,” said Kristine Longshore, an ophthalmologist. “People throw
trash on the table.”

Republicans believe that, if Trump wins or keeps the margin narrow in Bucks
County, Harris could be denied the state’s 19 electoral votes. “If you keep
Bucks even, or you lose by a hair, a point, point-and-a-half, you’ll pretty much
win Pennsylvania,” said Jim Worthington, who owns the Newtown Athletic Club, a
sprawling 300,000-square-foot facility.





Worthington has raised millions of dollars for Trump, led the GOP delegation to
the Republican convention in Milwaukee and is a member at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
Club in Florida. This past spring, he hosted Trump at a fundraiser at his
Pennsylvania facility. Vance appeared at a rally there last month.

He said Trump is “crushing it” in Bucks. “How many big signs did you see?” he
asked. “The big 4-by-8s [4 feet by 8 feet]. I bought all those. I bought $50,000
worth of signs and I had my son and a few of my employees put them out over the
last six weeks.”

Signs don’t vote, but they are making Harris supporters nervous. “I drive the
roads every day and I’ve seen it and I hear it,” said Kris Ballerini, the county
treasurer. “I am … probably at an 8.5 out of 10 of nervousness.”

Democrats are also mindful that the Republicans now hold a small advantage in
registration in the county, reversing what had been a larger Democratic
advantage. “It was grassroots effort — door-knocking, getting out there,” said
Longshore, the ophthalmologist volunteering for Trump.

Trump is a powerful motivator for those who despise him. Alison McCabe is a
former Republican and a supporter of abortion rights. She left the party in part
because of her father. He was a Navy pilot, she said, “not a sucker or loser,”
referring to Trump’s reported admonishment of Americans who died at war. She
described Trump as: “Awful. Narcissist. Mean. Cruel. Incompetent. Enabled.
Entitled. Inheritance boy. However you want to phrase that, I just can’t stand
him.”

At the nearby Harris office, volunteers were signing in for canvassing with Jean
Kiernan. She has volunteered in many presidential campaigns but sees this one as
“more nerve-racking with much more at stake.”

Lee Friedman, a veterinarian, had just picked up his materials for afternoon
door-knocking, the first time he had done such work. Preserving democracy had
brought him out. “I fear if Trump wins that we’ve just had possibly our last
election in this country,” he said. “I do literally believe that.”

Bucks County has now become a destination point for Democratic volunteers from
blue states. Dan Brodnitz, who works at LinkedIn, arrived from California on a
Friday afternoon and was waiting for a friend to join him for the weekend as he
walked through Doylestown. “The stakes being what they are, we committed to each
other that we would come out together and see the people in Bucks County,” he
said.

Around noon at the market on Saturday, Sunny Zhang had joined the Trump forces
on the street corner, where she often stands to show her support. She wore a
T-shirt with a photo of Trump, his face bloodied and his fist in the air, taken
moments after the Butler shooting. She was waving a flag that said “Jesus is my
savior, Trump is my president.” A driver in an SUV rolled to the intersection,
slowed and shouted obscenities, and then was gone.

correction

An earlier version of this story misstated the surname of Brittany Smith and the
occupation of Joe Hill, both of Philadelphia. This story has been corrected.


ELECTION 2024

Follow live updates on the 2024 election and Vice President Kamala Harris and
former president Donald Trump from our reporters on the campaign trail and in
Washington.

Policy positions: We’ve collected Harris’s and Trump’s stances on the most
important issues — abortion, economic policy, immigration and more.

Presidential polls: Check out how Harris and Trump stack up, according to The
Washington Post’s presidential polling averages of seven battleground states.
We’ve identified eight possible paths to victory based on the candidates’
current standing in the polls.

Senate control: Senate Democrats are at risk of losing their slim 51-49 majority
this fall. The Post breaks down the nine races and three long shots that could
determine Senate control.



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2284 Comments
Election 2024
HAND CURATED
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   Harris, Trump converge on battleground state of Michigan
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   Who is ahead in Harris vs. Trump 2024 presidential polls right now?
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   How people cast their vote in each state, and how it’s changing
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