ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Vice President Kamala Harris urged a new generation of voters to raise their voices and push her campaign over the top Monday during a rally at Muhlenberg College in the closing hours of the 2024 presidential election.
Thousands of ecstatic supporters piled into Memorial Hall for a chance to catch the Democratic nominee’s 21-minute afternoon address.
About 3,500 jammed into the gym, and hundreds more who couldn’t get in watched on screens from the building’s indoor track.
Harris pitched her candidacy as an opportunity to break from the divisions that have dominated American politics for the past eight years. She paid special attention to the first-time voters and called on them to stick up for the issues that matter to them – climate change, school safety and reproductive rights.
"This is your lived experience. I see you, and I see your power, and we must, must, must recognize how bright our future is because of you," Harris said as the students in the hall exploded into cheers.
Harris, 60, shared her family story of attending civil rights marches with her parents from her stroller as a child. People from all walks of American life attended those protests to build the America they deserved, she said.
“Allentown, I am going to ask you, are you ready to make your voices heard?"Kamala Harris, at rally at Muhlenberg College
Now, in the closing moments of a neck-and-neck presidential race between Harris and former President Donald Trump, those same guidelines would lead her to victory, she said.
“Allentown, I am going to ask you, are you ready to make your voices heard? Do we believe in opportunity? Do we believe in the promise of America? Are we ready to fight for it?” Harris asked the raucous crowd.
Tuerk, Wild take the stage
A string of speakers including Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk, U.S. Rep. Susan Wild and rapper Fat Joe pumped up the crowd before Harris’s address. Wild, the Democratic incumbent in the Lehigh Valley’s battleground congressional district, pushed her credentials on reproductive rights.
Wild pointed to her record writing the bill to preserve in vitro fertilization and similar reproductive assistance treatments. By comparison, her Republican challenger Ryan Mackenzie voted limit abortion access, including bills that didn’t include exceptions for rape, incest and the rights of the mother, she said.
Showing up for rallies and cheering on your preferred candidates aren’t enough, she said.
"This only happens if we channel all of this terrific enthusiasm into votes. Cheers and applause do not count," Wild said.
The Latino factor
Fat Joe, whose real name is Joseph Cartagena, specifically called out to the Latinos in the region. The Trump campaign has worked to project itself as an ally to Hispanics who will build more opportunities through a stronger economy.
But Cartagena pointed to the racist tropes from speakers at Trump’s recent rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City, his baseless attacks on Haitian communities and his administration’s efforts to delay relief efforts to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
“If I’m speaking to some undecided Puerto Ricans, especially in Pennsylvania, what more do they gotta do to show you who they are?” he asked.
The Lehigh Valley stop — her first as the party’s presidential candidate — was part of a marathon of Pennsylvania events for Harris on Monday. She flew into Scranton from Detroit Monday morning before heading to Allentown. Afterward, she left for scheduled rallies in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
Battleground Pennsylvania
Harris’ stop in the city came a week after former President Donald Trump rallied his supporters at the PPL Center. The tenor, rhetoric and even the pitch stood in sharp contrast. Trump spoke for over an hour with breaks for videos highlighting violent crime by criminals illegally in the country.
The Harris rally featured an act by salsa star Frankie Negron. The crowd, most of whom didn’t appear to speak Spanish, was slow to get into the act until Negron provided some coaching on his lyrics.
"I'm going to teach you a little Spanish. Don't worry, it's easy. It means 'Respect my people,'" he said.
For weeks, both campaigns have relentlessly campaigned across Pennsylvania, which political observers have described as the most important swing state in the nation.
While the visit Monday was Harris’ first to the Lehigh Valley in four years, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz and other proxies have been regular presences for months.
The attention is merited by the region’s record as a national bellwether. The Lehigh Valley’s congressional district and Northampton County in particular tend to back the winning presidential candidate.
A little more than 24 hours before voting ends, the presidential race is too close to call. Polls show Harris and Trump are separated by less than 1.5 points in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to poll aggregator website FiveThirtyEight.com.
