Will Harris sway PA voters? A Pittsburgh area Democrat and Republican each have a say
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Left: Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling, Right: John WinkNate Smallwood for NPR -
Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling poses for a portrait outside a restaurant in Moon Township, Pennsylvania on July 23, 2024.Nate Smallwood for NPR -
John Wink poses for a portrait outside his home in Moon Township, Pennsylvania on July 23, 2024.Nate Smallwood for NPR -
Moon Township a suburban town in Allegheny County on July 24, 2024.Nate Smallwood for NPR
PITTSBURGH – Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling of Moon Township, a municipality that sits a few miles northwest of Pittsburgh, smiles as a server at local staple Primanti Brothers delivers a sandwich stacked higher than a double AA battery.
The story that locals like Madonna-Emmerling tell is that this Pittsburgh-style sandwich – layered with coleslaw, tomato slices, and French fries – was created so that local blue collar workers could drive large trucks and eat with one hand while on a shift.
The sandwich ties back to her family’s history – and that of many other residents in the area – of working in the steel industry and other blue collar jobs, many of which disappeared long ago. Her father was an auto worker involved in the local union. That led to her now working as a community organizer and “multi-hyphenate” political pot stirrer, she said.
When there were talks of closing a local school, she protested. She’s president of the library board and fought to keep a LGBTQ book on the shelves. She’s run for public office and trained activists to knock on doors at election time to shore up votes for Democrats.
But selling locals on President Biden at the top of the ticket has proven a struggle. His poor showing at the June debate with former President Donald Trump zapped a lot of energy. Then came the attempted assassination on Trump in nearby Butler, which caused a lot of “whiplash” in this area where many voters don’t adhere strictly to one party or the other.
“People are a little bit checked out. People are very tired. And we're just trying to say, ‘OK , you're going to be tired about the top of the ticket, but there's still work to do,’” Madonna-Emmerling said, noting that some door-knocking efforts were slowed down after the shooting out of respect for Republican voters.
She couldn’t quite see a way forward.
But then came the historic news that Biden was dropping out and making way for Vice President Harris to take his place. While she wasn’t necessarily calling for Biden to drop out, Madonna-Emmerling said she feels like his decision may prove a consequential one in Pennsylvania, which will again prove key to winning the White House.
“It was a literal exhalation, shoulders lowering,” Madonna-Emmerling said. “We’ve stopped the bleeding.”
More and more volunteers, she said, have called her in recent days about voter outreach efforts since Biden’s move.
“Plug in, let's go,” she told them. “Get on the train. We're all going together to the top.”
Their involvement in getting more voters to turn out could make all the difference in Moon Township, and other suburbs that surround Pittsburgh, which historically have voted for Republicans.
Trump won most of Moon Township’s 13 voting precincts in 2016 when he carried the state, according to Allegheny County Election Results data. And though most precincts again went his way in 2020, Democrats and Joe Biden picked up support in the town, when almost 2,000 more people voted. The same happened in small counties across the state, between here and Philadelphia and helped Democrats win the swing state back.
With the vice president now in the race, a new NPR poll found that the presidential race has hit a bit of a reset. Trump and Harris are now statistically tied, and some independent voters now say they are undecided,
Madonna-Emmerling feels that Harris’ campaign has injected new energy into Democrats, and she feels that the vice president’s background as a prosecutor is a winning combination and makes her an “ideal suburban candidate.”
Polling in the immediate aftermath of Biden's endorsement for Harris shows she has more work to do with suburban voters, but also has more opportunity with folks in these areas who may now be undecided.
“Often in the suburbs, people want someone who is pro-public safety, pro-police,” Madonna-Emmerling said, adding that many in the area have family who are former military now working in law enforcement. “That can be a really hard barrier to overcome sometimes. And when you can say this is a clear case of a prosecutor against a felon, it's a home run.”
But across town, a local Republican says, “We’ll see …”
Moon Township’s elected Republican tax collector John Wink, speaking to NPR from his backyard on a slightly muggy afternoon, said he believes the luster of Harris replacing Biden at the top of the ticket will wear off in the coming weeks.
“We’ll see if that lasts,” Wink said. “I think she’s a terrible candidate. When she actually ran for president, she couldn’t get votes.”
The core issues that Wink said he feels matter most to voters in this part of Pennsylvania – how they are currently experiencing inflation and securing the U.S.-Mexico border – still favor Trump.
Wink, who serves on the GOP’s state committee, has lived in the Pittsburgh area since he was two years old. His father was once mayor of Hampton Township, north of the city. Wink said he started working on campaigns, stuffing envelopes and putting mailers together for candidates, as early as 15 years old.
And his wife serves on the library board alongside Democrat Madonna-Emmerling.
Residents and voters here are by and large happy with how the town is run, regardless of the party affiliation of those running the local government, he feels. The roads are well maintained and the police force is good, he added.
It’s Pennsylvania’s status as a swing state, closely watched by national politics, that makes living here interesting from a political perspective, Wink said.
“I’m glad Pennsylvania is a swing state, much more interesting than if it was one way or the other,” Wink said. “It’s a whole lot more fun.”
One of his gauges for how elections might go is looking at campaign signs in front yards.
“I kind of thought Trump was in trouble in 2020 because I was seeing too many Biden signs, much more so than in 2016, where there were very little in the way of Hillary signs,” Wink remembered.
His verdict right now? It’s too early. There aren’t that many signs out yet, Wink said, but he’s still confident Trump will win.
So what are the keys for Trump and Harris here?
Wink said many local Republicans are excited to vote for Trump again, though he said he wished the party had nominated a younger candidate.
He would’ve liked to see Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley be the nominee. But Trump won the primaries, and Wink plans to vote for him.
As for whether Moon Township and areas nearby will vote for Trump or Harris, if she becomes the nominee as expected, Wink and Madonna-Emmerling have a similar view.
Families and seniors on fixed incomes here are struggling with the cost of groceries and other costs of living. Under Trump, “things were humming along pretty well,” Wink said, and if Republicans can communicate that message and get their lower-propensity voters to turn out, the election will be theirs.
Madonna-Emmerling thinks voters here will want a candidate to be honest and relatable and Harris fits the bill.
She says people in this community work hard and care about their families and those around them. Speaking authentically to that could motivate those among them who are non-voters to head to the polls.
“Don't be fake,” Madonna-Emmerling advised. “We have a strong bull**** detector.”
The audio version of this story was produced by Taylor Haney and edited by Gabriel Spitzer.
Transcript
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Pennsylvania is a swing state that Democrats really need to win - a job that likely now falls to Vice President Harris.
(SOUNDBITE OF LUGGAGE ROLLING)
INSKEEP: We've just arrived at Pittsburgh International Airport - everybody wheeling their bags out of the terminal, which is inside Moon Township, Pa., the first place we plan to talk to voters.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLANE LANDING)
INSKEEP: That's one of the planes we saw landing over the West Hills, the name for the rolling high ground above the Ohio River. Some people around here work for airlines or retired from them. Moon Township voted twice for Trump, but the margin was narrower the second time, and some suburban neighborhoods even went for Biden. Right outside the airport, we met someone who'd like to run up more Democratic votes.
KATHLEEN MADONNA-EMMERLING: I'm Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling. I live in Moon Township.
INSKEEP: She met us at Primanti's, a Pittsburgh chain that serves sandwiches almost too thick to eat.
This sandwich is, like, the size of my head.
They serve your French fries on the sandwich, which she says is tradition, so working people could eat standing up. Her dad was an autoworker and a union man, which is how she grew up to be a community organizer and, she says...
MADONNA-EMMERLING: Resident pot-stirrer.
INSKEEP: (Laughter) What pots do you stir?
MADONNA-EMMERLING: Steve, I'm a multihyphenate pot-stirrer.
INSKEEP: People tried to close a local school. She took part in a protest. She's president of the library board and fought battles over LGBTQ books on the shelves. She's run for public office and trained activists to knock on doors at election time.
MADONNA-EMMERLING: So it really comes down to turnout here. And when our elector is excited on either side is really what makes the difference.
INSKEEP: After the June presidential debate, local Democrats had no excitement at all. Madonna-Emmerling was desperate just to keep people interested in state legislative races.
MADONNA-EMMERLING: If you believe all is lost, we need to strengthen the protections in Pennsylvania, and we do that through a strong legislature. So that's the message we were getting out.
INSKEEP: Were there people you were talking with who were saying, this election is over - it's all lost?
MADONNA-EMMERLING: There's a lot of sighing when talking about politics.
INSKEEP: And then, people were horrified by the assassination attempt on former President Trump just north of Pittsburgh. Yet she desperately wanted President Biden to stay in the race.
MADONNA-EMMERLING: And I didn't realize the stress and the burden until the announcement came that Vice President Harris was going to be the top of the ticket. It was a literal exhalation - a shoulders-lowering. We've stopped the bleeding. The momentum has been so exciting, so incredible. Volunteers are coming out of the woodwork, and I'm here for it.
INSKEEP: Analysts see Harris' vulnerabilities, like her links to Biden's record on immigration and other issues. Madonna-Emmerling sees a potential winner because Harris is a former prosecutor.
MADONNA-EMMERLING: My first thought was this is the ideal suburban candidate because she straddles the line between being approachable, relatable, joyful even, while also having incredible public safety credentials. Because often, in the suburbs, people want someone who is pro-public safety, pro-police.
INSKEEP: Because many people here have military or police backgrounds.
MADONNA-EMMERLING: And when you can say, this is a clear case of a prosecutor against a felon, it's a home run.
INSKEEP: Harris is a person of color and a woman. Is that a disadvantage with some voters around here?
MADONNA-EMMERLING: No.
INSKEEP: Not at all? You don't think she loses...
MADONNA-EMMERLING: When we continue to say things like - is this person electable because of their uniqueness? - we are pandering to misogynists and racists, and I am not having it. My response is, are we electrifying people who have never felt seen, who have never felt heard, who are now represented on the grandest stage in the world? It's not a problem.
INSKEEP: What, if anything, would you warn Kamala Harris not to do because it would lose votes right here in your township?
MADONNA-EMMERLING: So speaking from my own experience, every politician wants to be relatable. The way you're relatable is that you actually relate to people. You have to be real. You have to share your experiences and your worries and your joys and your concerns openly and really show that you're a worker. That's the quality I respect most in someone - is that they're truthful and they give it all. People feel it, and it moves them. And that's what we need - is to move people from being nonvoters to voters.
INSKEEP: I feel, since I asked about a warning, you're saying, don't be fake.
MADONNA-EMMERLING: Don't be fake. We have a strong [expletive] detector (laughter).
INSKEEP: We finished our Primanti sandwiches with Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling and drove across Moon Township for another perspective from John Wink. We sat on plastic chairs on his back porch overlooking the woods.
JOHN WINK: I've been active in politics probably since I was 15 years old.
INSKEEP: He recalls stuffing envelopes for political mailers with his mom and watching his father win the election as mayor of their town. He's now on the Republican state committee here in Pennsylvania. And Wink, too, has had a dramatic several weeks.
WINK: I mean, the assassination attempt was terrible. It never should have happened.
INSKEEP: Then came a convention that seemed to go well. I told Wink what I'd heard from the Democratic activist about the last few weeks, of how the parties struggled until Harris emerged.
And then all of a sudden, there's excitement at the end in the last couple of days. People have...
WINK: Well, we'll see if that lasts.
INSKEEP: You don't think it'll last?
WINK: No, I don't think so. I think she's a terrible candidate.
INSKEEP: Why?
WINK: When she actually ran for president, she couldn't get votes. I don't think it'll last.
INSKEEP: There is a school of thought that Trump was ready to run against Biden and set his whole campaign up to run against Biden, and now everything changes on him. Do you think that's a hardship?
WINK: It's a challenge. It's - I don't know it's a hardship. I think he's got to be careful. Debating her - he can't be mean.
INSKEEP: Why can't he be mean in debate?
WINK: Well, because she's a woman. I think that's primarily the - I mean, the reason she was chosen to be vice president - the No. 1 qualification - Black woman. That's what Biden said he wanted to pick.
INSKEEP: Biden did say in 2020 that he would choose a cabinet that looked like America as well as a woman as his vice president. Wink dismissed Harris' work as a state attorney general and a senator.
One other thing occurs to me. In January, when she was still running for president, Nikki Haley said in a speech, the first party that replaces their 80-year-old candidate is going to win. And that was the Democrats. Biden stepped down. Do you wish Republicans maybe had gone with somebody younger?
WINK: I thought so. I would have liked somebody like Haley or DeSantis in the primaries. But Trump won the primaries, and I can accept that.
INSKEEP: Ultimately, Republican John Wink is counting on what did not change in recent days. Democrats found a younger candidate, but Wink says the underlying issues didn't change, which, by the way, is what the Trump campaign is saying. Just as I was leaving Wink's house in the Pittsburgh suburbs, an email came across from one of Trump's pollsters predicting that Kamala Harris may soon lead in some polls but that the race will settle down. We'll see. We're here in Pittsburgh today and tomorrow, hearing Pennsylvania voters. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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