Block by block, Kamala Harris storms Philadelphia in 11th-hour vote push

PHILADELPHIA - In the home stretch of an extraordinarily tight US presidential race, Ms Kamala Harris is courting support in the largest city of the largest battleground state – one voter at a time.

Locked in a political duel with Republican Donald Trump, the Vice-President took to the streets of Philadelphia on Oct 27 for a frantic ground-game of campaigning.

In multiple stops across ethnically diverse neighbourhoods in the City of Brotherly Love, Ms Harris hugged voters, cuddled babies, wooed patrons at local establishments and quoted scripture in a predominantly black church.

With barely a week to go, Ms Harris is leaving nothing to chance in Philadelphia, where she must run up her vote tally to win the ultimate battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Ms Harris rolled up to Philly Cuts barber shop in the largely black neighbourhood of West Philadelphia to meet residents, before ducking into the African-American-themed Hakim’s Bookstore & Gift Shop.

“I’m so happy to see you,” Ms Harris told an elderly woman, Ms Ann Hughes, before embracing her and confiding: “They’re working me to the bone.”

It has been a frantic pace in the waning days of a bitter presidential race that has seen both candidates use confrontational language, with Trump in particular accused of toxic attacks on Ms Harris.

“She’s boots to the ground,” 43-year-old African-American woman Myrda Scott, who runs a financial firm, told AFP as she awaited Ms Harris at a youth basketball recreation centre rally.

“Especially here in Philadelphia, we like touching, feeling, hearing, seeing the people and being personable with them.”

Trump has repeatedly campaigned in Pennsylvania too.

While he courts his bread-and-butter voters including white males, Christian conservatives, and rural residents, he has also sought to peel away black male support from Ms Harris.

Ms Rosa Jones, a black woman recently laid off from her customer service job, is stressed because her son is voting for Trump.

While Ms Scott expressed confidence about a Ms Harris victory, “I have some jitters” about the election, 68-year-old Ms Jones told AFP.

But she believes Ms Harris needs to keep at it with “these little gatherings here, where she’s sitting with everyday people up close”.

‘Victory runs through Philly’

Ms Harris’ route took her through a working class Puerto Rican neighbourhood to Freddy and Tony’s Restaurant, where she spoke with voters, snapped selfies and addressed diners.

“Truly, the path to victory runs through Philly and through Pennsylvania,” she said. “It runs through all of you.”

Ms Awilda Cubero, a Puertorriquena who moved to Philadelphia two decades ago, was glowing about Ms Harris’ round of intimate get-out-the-vote stops.

“She has to come, in person, to talk to the people,” she told AFP.

“That’s politics,” added Ms Cubero, 66, rubbing the fingers of one hand together. “That’s the connection.”

At the Church of Christian Compassion, Ms Harris hugged supporters in the predominately black congregation and then preached at the pulpit.

“Yes these next nine days will test us,” Ms Harris said, urging Philadelphians to vote early and knock on doors. “Joy cometh in the morning,” she added, as congregants leapt to their feet. AFP