In Pennsylvania, Wary Voters Wonder if Harris Can Deliver

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — In a packed college gym in downtown Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on Friday evening, Vice President Kamala Harris closed out a long, successful week by elaborating on her vision for “an opportunity economy,” a centerpiece of her presidential campaign: Three million new homes. A pledge to take on “corporate price gouging.” Tax cuts for more than 100 million Americans.

About a mile away, Judith Johnson was watching Harris’ rally on television in her apartment. A registered Republican, Johnson, 54, thought Harris had been “wonderful” in the debate Tuesday; she was eager to learn more, especially about the economy.

But Johnson’s vote, at least for now, remains with former President Donald Trump. “He’s a businessman,” she said. “And I think he sees what’s going on.”

Johnson exemplifies the challenge facing Harris in Pennsylvania and in other crucial battleground states. People like her say they are open to switching their vote. But they want to know: An opportunity economy — how? And for whom?

Wilkes-Barre, a former industrial city, is the seat of Luzerne County, which Trump has won handily, twice. While Democrats tend to do best in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh regions, they see narrowing the gap in places like Wilkes-Barre as key to winning the state. In 2020 President Joe Biden, who was born in nearby Scranton, ate into Trump’s margin there by several points, part of a wave of support that lifted him to victory in the state.

Polls suggest Harris may struggle to replicate that success. Despite her modest upbringing and her emphasis, on the campaign trail, on the needs of “middle-class, working people,” as she put it Friday, she is still laboring to convince many voters that she understands them, or that she can deliver on her promises.

Johnson works part time for a school-bus company, as an aide for special-needs children. It is a job she finds fulfilling and meaningful — she loves it when former students recognize her around town — but it does not pay well. She makes just above minimum wage, which in Pennsylvania is $7.25 an hour, the federal baseline.

About eight months ago, Johnson said, her landlord raised her rent from $675 to $1,000 a month. High grocery prices mean she buys chicken, rather than beef, and drinks water, rather than soda. She has considered taking on a second job to make ends meet.

So far, she has not been convinced that Harris, whom she sees as a liberal former prosecutor from a big city, will help.

“I don’t think she sees what’s going on,” Johnson said. She doesn’t see how Harris would lower “ridiculous” prices, or make her town feel safer, or make life more affordable for older Americans like herself, who aren’t starting a business or raising a family.

“I know if people hear me, they are going to say, ‘You’re racist,’” Johnson said. “But it has to be opportunity for everybody. Not immigrants, not just Blacks or people of color. I know a lot of white Americans are feeling like they’re being let down. A lot of people are coming into this country, they are handing them money. I know a lot of veterans, they’re not helping the veterans.”

Even some of Harris’ supporters in Wilkes-Barre say they aren’t sure how, exactly, she will improve an economy that can feel stacked against them.

Austin Shission is a co-owner, with his parents, of Abide Coffeehouse in downtown Wilkes-Barre. A Democrat and a devoted consumer of political news, he plans to volunteer for Harris, whom he says has energized many young voters like him. In a back refrigerator at Abide, he had a cake from a local baker — blue and white, with “Harris Walz 2024” written across it, and a strand of frosting “pearls” — just in case she stopped by Friday.

Still, he had some questions.

“I think it’s more like clarifications,” Shission said. “I know where she stands — how are you going to get us there?”

His concerns, like Johnson’s, are not things a president alone can address.

Supply chain issues, which had been a major problem during the COVID-19 pandemic, were starting to pop up again, Shission said. He is paying $1,700 a month to repay student loans, some at 12% interest. “I’m not blaming anybody else, I got myself into this,” he said, but he was scarcely making a dent in what he owed, he said.

The long wake of the pandemic is still apparent in Wilkes-Barre, he said. The city’s population, in 2020, had ticked up after decades of decline, census figures showed, but the pandemic had dispersed many workers, and the downtown area still felt hollowed out.

Like Johnson, Shission remarked on rising rents in Wilkes-Barre, where a one-bedroom apartment can now cost upward of $2,000 per month. He attributed it to outside landlords and investment firms coming in, renovating properties, and pricing residents out of their homes.

Pennsylvania lawmakers have recently taken steps to address a statewide housing shortage and growing rent costs. Democratic state senators this year introduced a bill that would cap rent increases and create a rent advisory board. On Thursday, Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, signed an executive order that would expand property tax assistance, develop affordable housing and help people facing eviction.

On Friday, Johnson blamed Democrats in local government for Pennsylvania’s failure to raise its minimum wage. In fact, the Republican-controlled state Senate has blocked repeated attempts to do so.

Harris has said she would seek to raise the federal minimum wage, if elected, but has not proposed a specific rate. In a debate against Biden in 2020, Trump said the matter should be left to the states, but then suggested he would be open to raising the minimum wage. He has not addressed the matter publicly this cycle.

In her rallies this past week, and at the debate, Harris described Trump, who was born into wealth, as incapable of understanding or tending to the needs of working Americans. And yet for Johnson, that does not matter. Her life felt better when he was president.

On Friday evening in Wilkes-Barre, Harris talked about how, as president, she would try to open doors to Americans who felt shut out of the economy. “We as Americans do not lack for ambition, for aspiration, for dreams, for the preparedness to do hard work,” she said. “But not everyone has the opportunity, because not everyone has the access.”

She talked about abortion, a reliably forceful and impassioned part of her stump speech. And she made fun of Trump’s debate performance. Soon, after a call and response, she was done, waving to the crowd, striding back down the elevated walkway in her sneakers, almost disappearing behind the phones and signs held aloft.

At home, Johnson marveled: “She didn’t speak very long.” Trump’s speeches at rallies typically last well over an hour; Harris had spoken for about 25 minutes.

For now, Trump was still her man. But there is still time, before the election, to change her mind.

“I would vote for whoever is the better candidate,” Johnson said. “I still would have to hear from her a little bit more before November.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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