To a local, unionized audience, Vice President Kamala Harris urged supporters to turn out, while contrasting herself with Trump.
ERIE, Pa.—Erie County has voted for every winning presidential candidate since 2008, a fact not lost on Vice President Kamala Harris, who visited the city of Erie on Oct. 14 to rally supporters with a campaign speech.
With such narrow margins and Pennsylvania’s 19 Electoral College votes—the largest of any battleground state—at stake, Harris’s central message in Erie was about voter turnout. She asked her supporters to make plans for when to vote and shared specific voting instructions.
“How you all vote in presidential elections often ends up predicting the national result,” Harris said. “You can vote early in person at the Erie County Voter Registration Office from now until Tuesday, October 29, and so now is the time to make your plan to vote.
“If you have already received your ballot in the mail, please do not wait. Fill it out and return it today.”
The rally, held at the Erie Insurance Arena downtown, was attended by a largely local audience, including unionized workers from the city’s manufacturing sector. They told The Epoch Times they believed that Harris would be the best candidate to support manufacturing jobs in the area—an issue that Trump has vowed to address with his pro-tariff platform.
“I don’t think tariffs are the answer,” said John Knob, a 74-year-old retired employee of General Electric and union member of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America Local 506 in Erie.
“[We need] better trade relationships with other countries,” Knob said. Harris ought to focus on “probably renegotiating some of our deals with other countries,” he said.
Gary Grack, a Service Employees International Union Local 22 of Firemen and Oilers member said, “Unions are very important in Erie County. [I’ve] been a union man my whole life. Now, I’m a small business owner, [and] I love everything [Harris] says.
“Go back to Bidenomics. The stock market, the Dow, everything is booming, and 401(k)s are doing well.” Grack blamed any issues in the cost of living on “price gouging by the grocers and big oil.”
Gary Grack (L), his wife, Patty Pilatus Grack (C), and friend Heather Ulmer at the Erie Insurance Arena, where Vice President Kamala Harris held a rally in Erie, Pa., on Oct. 14, 2024. Arjun Singh/Epoch Times
Harris addressed many of these themes during her 30-minute speech, alongside abortion and tax credits for parents with young children.
A large share of her speech was devoted to contrasting her policies with Trump’s record and portraying him as a threat to democracy.
She exhibited a video with clips of Trump’s remarks at rallies where he disparaged political opponents with allegedly violent language. Trump has said Democrats’ quotations of him were presented without relevant context that informs their meaning.
Harris concluded the 30-minute speech with Democrats’ campaign slogan this year: “Fight for a better future. Because when we fight, we win.”
