I recently returned to Honolulu from a week of canvassing for Vice President Kamala Harris in Allentown and Bethlehem, Penn. The experience reaffirmed my belief in the vitality of our American experiment in democracy.
Pennsylvania is THE battle ground state in terms of winning its 19 electoral votes. The election for the president of the United States will be won in this state. Internal and published polls are showing the race to be very close in Pennsylvania, with Trump closing in on Harris’ slim lead.
Given this fact, thousands of people have converged on Pennsylvania from all over the country to canvass for Harris and to a lesser extent for Trump.
The Democrats have developed their ground game into a science over the last few presidential election cycles. Its focused drive to get out the vote is second to none. The Republicans, on the other hand, are basing their efforts more on media buys and messaging that is strategic and effectively placed in local newspapers, TV stations, billboards and yard signs.
The Democrats’ ground game is based on turning out Democrat registered voters who do not vote in most elections. This is a marginally small number of voters. If the Democrat Party of Pennsylvania can turn out these voters and get them to vote for Harris, Harris wins.
There are real challenges to overcome here. The Allentown/Bethlehem area used to be an industrial powerhouse for the United States for over 100 years. Bethlehem Steel produced the girders for the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, and the steel for the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River and the Golden Gate Bridge, along with the metal armor for the USS Maine and other U.S. Navy ships. Concrete manufactured in this area was used in the building of the Panama Canal.
These industries employed tens of thousands of union workers, in jobs that were physically hard and dangerous, but where union wages were sufficient to their families, along with health and retirement benefits. These jobs slowly disappeared and then ended in the early 2000s when steel production moved to more competitive markets. This left this community hollowed out with little hope for an improved future. Many of these workers and their families are registered Democrats. They feel the party has left them behind. So why vote? It does not matter.
In knocking on doors, I found people, for the most part, to be pleasant and receptive to our engagement, even registered Republicans despite our stating up front that we were campaigning for Harris. This gives me hope, because even though the dialogue in Washington, D.C., among some of our leaders is so vitriolic and divisive, people in smaller communities, such at Allentown and Bethlehem, retain a sense of community and concern for each other despite believing that the solution to their problems rests with electing different candidates for president.
We all need to remember this as we move through the final days of this presidential election.
Kirk Caldwell is former mayor of the City and County of Honolulu.
