In Pennsylvania, wary voters wonder if Harris can deliver

WILKES-BARRE, Pennsylvania – In a packed college gym in downtown Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on the evening of Sept 13, Vice-President Kamala Harris closed out a long, successful week by elaborating on her vision for “an opportunity economy”.

It is the centrepiece of her presidential campaign: Three million new homes, a pledge to take on “corporate price gouging”, tax cuts for more than 100 million Americans.

About a mile away, Ms Judith Johnson was watching Ms Harris’ rally on TV in her apartment. A registered Republican, Ms Johnson, 54, thought Ms Harris had been “wonderful”

in the Sept 10 debate;

she was eager to learn more, especially about the economy.

But Ms Johnson’s vote, at least for now, remains with former president Donald Trump. “He is a businessman,” she said. “And I think he sees what is going on.”

Ms Johnson exemplifies the challenge facing Ms Harris in Pennsylvania and in other crucial battleground states. People like her say they are open to switching their vote. But they want to know: An opportunity economy – how? And for whom?

Wilkes-Barre, a former industrial city, is the seat of Luzerne County, which Trump has won handily, twice. While Democrats tend to do best in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh regions, they see narrowing the gap in places like Wilkes-Barre as key to winning the state.

In 2020, President Joe Biden, who was born in nearby Scranton, ate into Trump’s margin there by several points, part of a wave of support that lifted him to victory in the state.

Polls suggest Ms Harris may struggle to replicate that success. Despite her modest upbringing and her emphasis, on the campaign trail, on the needs of “middle-class, working people”, as she put it on Sept 13, she is still labouring to convince many voters that she understands them, or that she can deliver on her promises.

Ms Johnson works part-time as an aide for special needs children at a school bus company. It is a job she finds fulfilling and meaningful – she loves it when former students recognise her around town – but it does not pay well. She makes just above the minimum wage, which in Pennsylvania is US$7.25 (S$9.40) an hour, the federal baseline.

About eight months ago, Ms Johnson said, her landlord raised her rent from US$675 to US$1,000 a month. High grocery prices mean she buys chicken, rather than beef, and drinks water, rather than soda. She has considered taking on a second job to make ends meet.

So far, she has not been convinced that Ms Harris, whom she sees as a liberal former prosecutor from a big city, will help.

“I don’t think she sees what is going on,” Ms Johnson said. She does not see how Ms Harris would lower “ridiculous” prices, or make her town feel safer, or make life more affordable for older Americans like herself who are not starting a business or raising a family.

“I know, if people hear me, they are going to say, ‘You are racist’,” Ms Johnson said. “But it has to be opportunity for everybody. Not immigrants, not just blacks or people of colour. I know a lot of white Americans are feeling like they are being let down. A lot of people are coming into this country, they are handing them money. I know a lot of veterans; they are not helping the veterans.”

Even some of Ms Harris’ supporters in Wilkes-Barre say they are not sure how, exactly, she will improve an economy that can feel stacked against them.

Mr Austin Shission is a co-owner, with his parents, of Abide Coffeehouse in downtown Wilkes-Barre. A Democrat and a devoted consumer of political news, he plans to volunteer for Ms Harris, who he says has energised many young voters like him.

In a back refrigerator at Abide, he had a cake from a local baker – blue and white, with “Harris Walz 2024” written across it, and a strand of frosting “pearls” – just in case she stopped by on Sept 13.

Still, he had some questions.

“I think it is more like clarifications,” Mr Shission said. “I know where she stands – how are you going to get us there?”

His concerns, like Ms Johnson’s, are not things that a president alone can address.

Supply chain issues, which had been a major problem during the Covid-19 pandemic, were starting to pop up again, Mr Shission said. He is paying US$1,700 a month to repay student loans, some at 12 per cent interest. “I am not blaming anybody else, I got myself into this,” he said, but he is scarcely making a dent in what he owes.

The long wake of the pandemic is still apparent in Wilkes-Barre, he said. The city’s population, in 2020, had ticked up after decades of decline, census figures showed, but the pandemic had dispersed many workers, and the downtown area still feels hollowed out.

Like Ms Johnson, Mr Shission remarked on rising rents in Wilkes-Barre, where a one-bedroom apartment can now cost upward of US$2,000 per month.

He attributed it to outside landlords and investment firms coming in, renovating properties and pricing residents out of their homes.

Pennsylvania lawmakers have recently taken steps to address a statewide housing shortage and growing rent costs. Democratic state senators in 2024 introduced a Bill that would cap rent increases and create a rent advisory board.

On Sept 12, Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, signed an executive order that would expand property tax assistance, develop affordable housing and help people facing eviction.

On Sept 13, Ms Johnson blamed Democrats in the local government for Pennsylvania’s failure to raise its minimum wage. In fact, the Republican-controlled state Senate has blocked repeated attempts to do so.

Ms Harris has said she would seek to raise the federal minimum wage, if elected, but has not proposed a specific rate.

In a debate against Mr Biden in 2020, Trump said the matter should be left to the states, but then suggested he would be open to raising the minimum wage. He has not addressed the matter publicly during this cycle.

In her rallies in the past week, and at the debate, Ms Harris described Trump, who was born into wealth, as incapable of understanding or tending to the needs of working Americans. And yet, for Ms Johnson, that does not matter. Her life felt better when he was president.

On the evening of Sept 13 in Wilkes-Barre, Ms Harris talked about how, as president, she would try to open doors to Americans who feel shut out of the economy.

“We as Americans do not lack for ambition, for aspiration, for dreams, for the preparedness to do hard work,” she said. “But not everyone has the opportunity, because not everyone has the access.”

She talked about abortion, a reliably forceful and impassioned part of her stump speech. And she made fun of Trump’s debate performance.

Soon, after a call and response, she was done, waving to the crowd, striding down the elevated walkway in her sneakers, almost disappearing behind the mobile phones and signs held aloft.

At home, Ms Johnson marvelled: “She didn’t speak very long.” Trump’s speeches at rallies typically last well over an hour; Harris had spoken for about 25 minutes.

For now, Trump is still Ms Johnson’s man. But there is still time, before the election, to change her mind.

“I would vote for whoever is the better candidate,” Ms Johnson said. “I still would have to hear from her a little bit more before November.” NYTIMES