Kamala Harris works to win over disaffected Republican voters in Pennsylvania : NPR
As Kamala Harris heads back to Pennsylvania Wednesday, her campaign and its allies are focusing on Republican voters there.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Vice President Kamala Harris visited Erie, Pennsylvania, yesterday, and she will be right back in the swing state tomorrow. While she’s there, Harris is scheduled to sit down for an interview with Bret Baier of Fox News. Harris and her allies are working to win over disaffected Republican voters in key states like Pennsylvania, so NPR’s Sarah McCammon traveled to the Philadelphia suburbs to see how those outreach efforts are going.
SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: Brittany Prime has spent the last several months talking politics with women a lot like her – women who usually vote Republican and who find themselves uncomfortable with former President Donald Trump.
BRITTANY PRIME: For moderate, center-right women, it’s always going to be the economy. That is always going to be the No. 1 issue. So a lot of it is reminding them that Donald Trump is not the better path forward.
MCCAMMON: Prime’s background is in Republican fundraising, but she says she couldn’t support her party’s nominee in 2016. Now she’s a founder of Women4Us, a group working to persuade Republican women to oppose Trump and back Vice President Kamala Harris. They’re focusing on the key states of North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
(SOUNDBITE OF PIZZA PANS SHUFFLING)
MCCAMMON: That’s where we met, at a pizza parlor in Montgomery County, one of the so-called collar counties outside Philadelphia. Prime says some women are afraid to tell their friends or even their husbands if they aren’t voting for Trump.
PRIME: You look at what Donald Trump said the other week at the rally, when he said, raise your hand if you’re voting for Kamala Harris.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DONALD TRUMP: Please raise your hand.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: Please raise your – actually, I should say, don’t raise your hand. It would be very dangerous.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: We don’t want to see anybody get hurt.
PRIME: You know, for women, that really seeps in. So it’s unfortunate. It’s sad, but we’re going to combat it in any way we can.
(CROSSTALK)
MCCAMMON: The Harris campaign is also working to mobilize disaffected Republican voters. Ann Womble changed her registration to independent when Trump was nominated in 2016. She’s now co-chair of Republicans for Harris in Pennsylvania. Womble says some of the voters she meets are relieved to talk to someone like her and echo her concerns about Trump.
ANN WOMBLE: You know, like, I am tired of Donald Trump. And it’s – this whole thing that he does to us is exhausting.
MCCAMMON: As part of this outreach, the Harris campaign is touting endorsements from multiple prominent Republicans, including former members of the Trump administration, national security and military leaders and elected officials, including former congresswoman Liz Cheney. At an event in Montgomery County last week hosted by the super PAC DemocracyFirst, Cheney recounted the events of January 6.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LIZ CHENEY: It doesn’t matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican or an independent. That’s depravity.
MCCAMMON: Most of the people there I talked to told me they were already Democrats. But for Don Keyser, a 79-year-old lifelong Republican who came from almost two hours away to hear Cheney, the message resonated.
DON KEYSER: I’m ashamed to say I voted for Trump the last two elections. But I won’t be voting for him this year, and I’ll tell you why. January 6 is the day that broke the camel’s back for me. What was done that day was reprehensible.
MCCAMMON: It’s difficult to predict how many former Trump supporters like Keyser will be persuaded by these efforts. Organizers point hopefully to the success of former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who drew double-digit support in several states, including Pennsylvania, which has a closed primary, even after dropping out of the Republican race. Craig Snyder is director of Haley Voters for Harris, which is trying to reach several million center-right voters in swing states. Snyder says he thinks Harris still has a chance to persuade undecided voters, unlike Trump.
CRAIG SNYDER: For his campaign, mobilization is the whole ball of wax. It’s everything – whereas Harris still has room to grow.
MCCAMMON: Other Republicans working to elect Harris note that many longtime Republicans ultimately will fall in line behind Trump. But if Harris can win over just a small percentage of those voters, that could be enough to swing a state and maybe the election.
Sarah McCammon, NPR News, Glenside, Pennsylvania.
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