Black voters souring on Harris in pivotal Pennsylvania county despite outreach

Vice President Kamala Harris is garnering a poor response from black voters in Erie, Pennsylvania, despite her campaign's larger and more expensive ground game than former President Donald Trump ’s.

Erie County has voted for the winning presidential candidate in the last four elections in a state that Trump has touted for its winner-take-all-all status.

“If we win Pennsylvania,” he said last month at a rally in the state, “we win the whole thing.”

Trump lost Erie County by less than 1,500 votes during the 2020 presidential election. With it, he lost Pennsylvania and the White House. This time around, Harris appears to be besting Republicans yet again with an impressive ground game in the battleground county. But despite her best efforts, black voters aren’t impressed with what they’re seeing, according to a new Reuters report.

One black voter said he’s backing Trump because he’s more “factual.”

“We don't care about LBGT rights. We don't care about, you know, abortion rights. We're not worried about that,” he said. “They don't offer anything to the straight Black male voters.”

In a county touted by one of Harris’s own campaign volunteers for its “bellwether” status, his words don’t bode well. The voting bloc comprises about 16% of Erie’s population, which mirrors their representation across all 50 states.

Another black voter is voting for Harris, but warned that enthusiasm for her within the African American community is “just not that intense.”

Their words come as Trump has made significant inroads in his outreach to the black community.

While he captured 8% of the black vote four years ago, polling from the New York Times showed Trump garnering 13% support from the voting bloc in Pennsylvania last month. Nationally, he’s polling at roughly 15% with black voters, with some surveys indicating support could be even higher.

In Erie, the black community’s tepid response to Harris comes despite the fact that her campaign made major investments in voter outreach.

“Harris and the Democrats are investing deeply in a more traditional ground game here,” Chris Borick, a political science professor at Pennsylvania's Muhlenberg College told the outlet.

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The Trump campaign has just two paid staffers in one office in the county, holds two volunteer “Trump Force 47” activities a week, and is at a disadvantage to the Harris campaign for volunteer presence, per the report. Meanwhile, Erie’s three campaign offices for Harris have eight paid staffers and more than 300 volunteers.

With much of its ground efforts outsourced to organizations like Turning Point Action, the former president's campaign appears to be relying on “the power of [Trump's] personal pull," Borick said. He’s already made two visits to the county this election cycle, while Harris has yet to make an appearance.