Hear a version of this conversation during Morning Edition on WVIA Radio.
SARAH: We're less than 50 days out from the 2024 election, and Pennsylvania is truly feeling like a battleground. Northeast Pennsylvania has now hosted both presidential candidates. Former President Donald Trump was here in August, and just last week, Vice President Kamala Harris came to Wilkes-Barre looking to shore up more support in this swing state. As with Trump, WVIA News had a team on the ground for Harris's visit. Here with me now we have Borys Krawczeniuk and Kat Bolus - good morning, and welcome to Morning Edition.
KAT: Good morning.
SARAH: All right, so all three of us were there along with others from the team for Harris' stop at Wilkes University on Friday. Kat, you and I were out talking to supporters in line downtown, while Borys, you were inside the McHale Athletic Center focusing on the speech and the rally itself. So I want to start by talking about the energy in the room and in line. You've both covered other Democratic and Republican campaign stops and candidates in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. So was there anything different about Friday?
BORYS: For me, what struck me is the difference between Biden's stop in April at the Scranton Cultural Center, and this rally at Wilkes. The Biden stop was couple hundred exclusive, like invitation only people, and the enthusiasm at this rally was just off the charts compared to the Biden rally. Biden had nice applause, and you know that it was a friendly crowd, but nothing like this. So the enthusiasm at this rally was much greater and along the lines of a Trump rally. This was smaller, but 5,000 people inside and out, you know, is still a pretty good crowd for a Friday night.
KAT: Yeah, I think compared to Biden's visit in April, like Borys said, it was kind of a small, invited group. But it was kind of, you know, the people that you would expect to see there. And this was kind of people from all walks of life. I felt like you had people across the age spectrum. You had younger people, you had older people. It was a very like diverse crowd who who were very excited to see the vice president speak. And it also made me think about when Hillary Clinton came to Riverfront (Scranton) in 2016. Hillary Clinton was campaigning for president, and it was, I think, her first stop with Joe Biden in Scranton. And I kind of thought about like the difference between - Riverfront kind of felt like big and hollow, and it was, you know, your, your typical type of, you know, political campaign stop.
BORYS: It felt more staged.
KAT: Maybe staged...this, the Kamala visit on Friday, the word that comes to mind is: the vibes were there...there was a DJ.
BORYS: It's a big vibe, right?
KAT: That's a big word right now, but there was a DJ and yeah, I think Sarah, you had said the lighting was like we were almost at a club.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAT: And even the crowd was just so enthusiastic. I was standing in line when Gov. Shapiro, you know, was on stage, and like, I felt like I was standing in line at a concert and I was missing, like the top song almost.
SARAH: So Borys, when Harris became the nominee, we were talking and we knew it was a matter of time before she came through NEPA. So what did you think that this stop was meant to achieve? And do you think it worked?
BORYS: It helped. I'm sure it helped. I mean, it certainly drove the enthusiasm of the people who showed up. You know, Luzerne County as recently as a decade ago had a lot more Democrats than Republicans. And that shifted to the point where the registration is now even, so I think they think that they have a chance to win back some of these Democrats, the way Biden did in 2020. He shaved five points off of Trump's victory margin in Luzerne County, for example, and did better in Lackawanna County than Hillary (Clinton) did.
KAT: I think one of the things that was interesting, and Sarah, you and I both, we talked to two separate people in line who are both enthusiastic about the vice president being able to turn Luzerne County blue again. A woman that I spoke to in line said she felt that, you know, Kamala Harris' campaign was bringing out younger voters, and...that would kind of push the county back to blue.
SARAH: Yeah, I spoke with someone who said that they're seeing little blips of blue coming back in Luzerne County, and they hope that this will continue.
BORYS: There were a lot more younger voters at this rally than there were at the Trump rally. Like the Trump rally, the Trump rallies are a much older crowd. Not that there weren't any young voters at the Trump rally, but there was a lot more younger voters at this crowd, this rally.
SARAH: This was a much shorter speech than the one Donald Trump gave at Mohegan Sun Arena in August. It actually started early too, we were all surprised by that.
BORYS: It started early and it ended before it was supposed to start.
SARAH: It's true. So what do you both think the voters of NEPA took away from Harris' remarks? Did she succeed in connecting with the folks in this region who came out to hear from her?
KAT: I think, you know, just kind of walking out of the rally, people seemed really enthusiastic. I know a lot of the voters that, or well, a lot of the people who attended the rally that both Isabela and Lydia had talked to, and I think Sarah, you talked to the guy that you spoke with before he went in, and afterwards - they both seemed really happy with what you know, the vice president had to say. So I don't know if 20-25 minutes was really a problem for people.
SARAH: As I said before, we're less than 50 days out from the election. Going forward, what do you think this is going to look like? Will they be back? Will Trump be back? Will Harris be back? Will we see Walz perhaps, or is it just going to be full speed ahead to election day?
BORYS: All of them. They're all going to be here in some combination, maybe separately, maybe together. I'm predicting right now that you'll see Biden with Harris in Lackawanna County in October.
KAT: Do you think Biden will take her to his childhood home like he did Hillary in 2016?
BORYS: Ha! But no, I think that you're going to see them come through here a couple of times.
KAT: And with the political rallies, there's always a level of ... protesters. And so I was kind of looking back through clips from 2016. And one thing that Trump supporters often say is that they want to see a woman president, but just not Hillary, and now it's just not Kamala. So I kind of thought that that was kind of an interesting through-line between, you know, these two major female candidates for president over the past 10 years.
SARAH: Yeah, Isabela spoke with a voter who said that, I want to see a woman president, but just not this woman. The Kamala campaign, though, the Harris campaign, has not been leaning into that aspect of her identity or any aspect of her identity in the history-making sense as far as promoting her as a candidate. Borys, do you think that that's an effective strategy?
BORYS: Yes, because it's already out there. It's apparent that she's Indian, she's Black, she's a woman. No need to point that out constantly, no need to respond to Donald Trump. I think, you know, that's not a bad strategy, because if it becomes all about that, then it may...turn off large groups of people who don't think that's the most important thing.
SARAH: And Kat, in our discussions with supporters on the line, I didn't find that that came up very often, you know, the history-making aspect of it, did you?
KAT: No, I found what came up a lot was her energy and the youth that she would bring to the office. The one woman I interviewed, the woman from Monroe Twp., she was 28 years old. And, you know, she said she liked Biden, but it was the energy and the youthfulness that Kamala brings to the campaign that had her excited... to vote this November.
SARAH: So there was some protest presence on the ground in Wilkes-Barre for the Harris rally. We had protesters who were in support of former President Donald Trump, but we also had the NEPA for Palestine protesters on the ground as well. Was there anything in particular that we think inspired protesters to come out for this rally, whereas they may not have shown up for Trump?
KAT: Isabela was very curious why the NEPA for Palestine people were at the vice president's visit, but they weren't at former President Trump's visit in August. And one of the reasons they said was that the current administration, the Biden-Harris administration, is the one who is responsible for supplying arms to Israel. I was able to see two protesters who were... in the Harris rally. They started to chant "Free Palestine." They kind of got pushed back, not necessarily by security, but by the supporters of Harris. There was a woman who was holding a sign in the one protester's face. He was live streaming, and she was holding a sign in his face. They definitely made a ruckus. But they, you know, they gave that explanation to Isabela, that the Biden-Harris administration is who they blame...for what's happening in Gaza right now.
SARAH: All right, so for more coverage of the Harris rally, and, of course, the upcoming 2024 election, you can find us at wvia.org. Borys and Kat, thanks so much for coming on.
BORYS AND KAT: Thanks.
