Harris Emphasizes Pennsylvania as Key to Victory for Supporters

PHILADELPHIA—During a highly-publicized rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City, former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, urged her supporters to cast their votes early at a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Oct. 27.

Speaking ahead of schedule and for just 15 minutes at her rally, Harris told supporters that “the path to victory runs through [Philadelphia voters].”

“Now is the time to vote early. Get it done tomorrow if you can,” Harris urged.

A Harris campaign staffer told The Epoch Times that they are working hard to turn out voters before Election Day.

This effort includes “knocking on doors, text messages, phone calls, flyers daily,” said Cordelia Johnson, a resident of the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia. “I work the polls, so I know there are a good percentage of new voters this time around, and hopefully that will be the boost.”

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Harris stated, “We have an opportunity to turn the page on the fear and divisiveness that have defined our politics over the past decade because of Donald Trump.

“We have the chance to move away from that same old playbook because we are tired of it.”‘

Getting out the vote has become a key focus for both the Harris and Trump campaigns in Pennsylvania as the election reaches its final phase. Trump addressed turnout at his State College rally on Oct. 26, urging supporters to vote early in large numbers, echoing the slogan “too big to rig,” as did Harris’s running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) in Scranton.

Harris emphasized, “This will be a close race until the very end, so we have a lot of work ahead of us, but we embrace hard work. Hard work is good work. Hard work is joyful work,” Harris said. “Make no mistake: we will win.”

“We have nine days to make this happen … no one can afford to sit on the sidelines,” she said. “There is too much at stake, and we cannot wake up the day after the election wondering what more we could have done.” She seemed to be alluding to the 2016 election, where low Democratic turnout contributed to Hillary Clinton’s loss in Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, Trump, at his rally in Madison Square Garden, expressed optimism about early voter turnout among Republicans. “We will achieve the greatest victory in the history of our country on Nov. 5th,” he said.

Trump also expressed his hope to win New York, a state that has not voted for a Republican president in the past 30 years.

“We also aim to win New York, and revitalize it to be safe, strong, beautiful, and vibrant. And we will accomplish that,” Trump stated. “It would be an honor to win New York.”

Mail-in voting, which became more widespread during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with 43 percent of ballots cast by mail, is less prevalent this year.

“I want to talk about Gaza for a moment. We can and must take this opportunity to end this war and bring the hostages back, and I will do everything I can to make that happen,” Harris said, addressing an issue that has negatively impacted her campaign in battleground states such as Michigan, where many Muslim voters are opposing her candidacy in protest against the Biden-Harris administration’s military aid to Israel.