When Kamala Harris stopped by Philly Katz, a West Philadelphia barbershop, days before the election, manager James Brown said the vice president was “like a favorite aunt.” ” he said.
Brown said Harris was “genuine, kind, nice and very pleasant” during the 30 minutes she spent at the store while on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania’s largest city, a battleground state. “Meeting her in person was so different from seeing her on TV.”
But when the customer sat down for the cut, he realized that the customer’s impression of Harris didn’t match his own. “I get that men don’t want to see women that powerful. There was a lot of that,” Brown said.
Harris’ visit to his store comes days after Donald Trump decisively won the presidential election, winning Pennsylvania and six other battleground states.
It was a crushing defeat for Democrats, who had capitalized on Mr. Trump’s tough rhetoric against political opponents and illegal immigrants and argued that Mr. Trump was a threat to democracy. But perhaps even more worrying for the party’s prospects for regaining power are signs that Trump is more popular than ever in major cities in battleground states.
Urban and suburban voters are a key component of Democratic coalitions today, and their votes often determine whether the party’s candidates and their campaigns win state and federal elections. But in overwhelmingly blue cities like Detroit, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia (all of which are located in battleground states that Trump won this year), the former president received fewer votes in the Nov. 5 election. That was more than the previous two times the former president voted.
Harris, Joe Biden and other top Democrats campaigned in all three cities, but none attracted as much attention as Philadelphia. Mr. Biden has visited the city many times during his presidency, at one point visiting Independence Hall, where America’s founders adopted the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, to remind the public of the dangers of Mr. Trump and his MAGA ideology. I turned it into a place to warn people. Harris’ only debate against Trump took place in the city, as did her final speech before Election Day.
Nevertheless, a Guardian analysis of unofficial voting data released by Philadelphia city commissioners found that Harris won nearly 79% of the vote in 64 of Philadelphia’s 66 wards. While Trump’s support increased compared to 2020, overall voter turnout decreased.
And Democratic candidates for key Senate seats also won in battleground states where Harris lost, with Republican Dave McCormick defeating Democrat Bob Casey in Pennsylvania.
The meeting sparked a public spat between Democrats, with local party chairman Bob Brady saying Harris made her look like an “elitist” and refused to work with Democrats. A top adviser to the vice president’s campaign in Philadelphia accused Brady of “running away from the campaign.” He asked for money to compensate for his own lack of fundraising ability and leadership. ”
In interviews with the Guardian, Democrats and Republicans said the vice president’s appeals failed to overcome the malaise among voters in Philadelphia, which has the highest poverty rate of any large city in the country. The disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing wave of inflation from rising prices convinced voters that the election would not change their lives or that Trump was the better choice.
“One of the problems, especially in Philadelphia, is that people don’t feel like government has the ability to improve their lives, and they don’t feel like government is responding to the problems that we have. I don’t think the city is thinking about it,” said public relations executive Larry Seisler.
“This was a temporary loss of confidence in the party that was in power, and voters were happy for a challenge in a different direction.”
Democratic campaign veteran Joe Hill is working with Black Leadership Pennsylvania, a nonprofit he co-founded that focuses on increasing voter turnout in a community that makes up about 40% of Philadelphia’s population. That’s how I spent this election. Hill said African-American voters are among the most reliable Democratic voters, but Harris was unable to convey a message that would reach those most concerned about the price of life.
“We needed a way to clearly explain to people how their economic realities were changing and how we were going to address the issue of rising costs. “I’ve never seen an answer that packs a punch,” he said.
After announcing its support for Harris, the Working Families Party, a progressive third party with two members on the Philadelphia City Council, sent out nearly 500 door-knockers across Philadelphia to encourage support for the vice president. was deployed. Salah Muhammad, the party’s Pennsylvania organizing director, said party recruiters encountered voters whose dissatisfaction with the city dampened their enthusiasm for Democrats further up the ballot.
Trump is best remembered by some for the stimulus package Congress authorized in the final months of his presidency to offset the economic damage caused by the coronavirus.
“It was inflation, it was the housing market, it was high-paying jobs. It was economic issues and all sorts of other issues, but inflation was one of them,” Muhammad said.
Democratic City Councilman Isaiah Thomas said the Harris campaign wasn’t vocal enough to tout the Biden administration’s accomplishments, such as cracking down on hard-to-track ghost guns, a move that has left the city with a spike in violent crime in recent years. said it was a welcome development. year.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump and his surrogates have effectively weaponized complaints about inflation, linking it to concerns about illegal immigration, an issue that Mr. Thomas said voters have not previously been concerned about. said.
“It’s not just about the economy and inflation, it’s about the border. These are things you never hear Philadelphians talk about the way they do things, but it was being hammered home to people,” he said. “The message was delivered in overwhelming volume.”
Philadelphia has a large Muslim and Arab American community, and both groups typically support the Democratic Party. But that loyalty frayed this year after Biden supported Israel’s invasions of Gaza and Lebanon, and Harris showed no signs of changing policy. David Orr, a former Republican mayoral candidate, said President Trump and his calls to “stop the war” have become even more appealing to these groups.
“No matter how they feel about this issue, their community recognizes the connection to Donald Trump and sees the effort,” Orr said.
Many Democrats believe things might have been different if Harris had spent more time campaigning. He became the Democratic nominee in July after Biden withdrew from the race following his disastrous debate loss to Trump. The vice president’s inauguration was greeted with enthusiasm by the party’s base, but the race quickly settled into a close race that opinion polls showed.
“I think the change in candidates affected a lot of people,” Thomas said. “It was confusing to people.”
Josh Novotny, a Republican strategist and consultant who worked with the Trump campaign in Philadelphia, acknowledged that the expansion across Philadelphia focused on two main issues.
“Mr. Trump supported low prices, Mr. Kamala supported high prices, and Mr. Trump supported closed borders, and Mr. Kamala supported open borders,” Novotny said.
Until now in Philadelphia, “many working-class minority voters not only voted Republican, but went so far as to ride a bus across town and pick up lawn signs and palm cards to hand out to friends. I’ve never seen him so energetic,” Novotny said. “To Mr. Trump’s credit, I think he really spoke to that crowd.”
