Kamala Harris Draws Big Crowd In Rural Red Pennsylvania

Kamala Harris arrived to campaign in Johnstown, PA, and she was met by a crowd of 400 people chanting “We’re not going back.”

Via: the vice presidential pool report:

AF2 landed at John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria Airport in Johnstown, PA, shortly before 1:50 pm with VP Harris aboard.

A crowd of several hundred people was waiting for her in an airport hanger chanting “Ka-ma-la.” Parked nearby was a Harris-Walz campaign bus with the logo “A New Way Forward” in large white letters.

The VP descended the stairs of AF2 at 1:56 pm to Beyoncé’s “Freedom.”

Among her greeters was Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who was wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt, gray gym shorts and bright blue sneakers. Also present was the senator’s wife Gisele Barreto Fetterman.

Harris then greeted her supporters at the hangar, shaking hands, exchanging words with members of the crowd and taking photos for about 15 minutes. Pool was stationed too far away to hear what was being said. The crowd chanted “we’re not going back” at one point. The VP was separated from the crowd by a series of low metal barriers.

Here is some of the crowd that met Harris in Johnstown:

The crowd continues to grow here in Johnstown @VP @TribLIVE pic.twitter.com/IeyIGbA6g9

— Megan Swift (@mgswift7) September 13, 2024

Johnstown is located in Cambria County, PA where Trump beat Biden 68%-30%, but the city of Johnstown went narrowly for Biden in 2020, after tipping narrowly to Trump in 2016. The purpose of Harris’s visit isn’t to flip these deep red rural areas of Pennsylvania, but to drive up Democratic turnout to hold Trump’s margin of victory in rural PA down.

It is a strategy that Democrats have been using in the Keystone State since 2017, and it has led to consistent statewide victories.

Kamala Harris gets it. She is leaving no Democratic votes in Pennsylvania on the table, and it is a plan that if executed well could send her to the White House in November.

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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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