ALLENTOWN, Pa. — As the dust settled following the first presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, one thing was clear to Lehigh Valley partisans.
This is a whole new race.
Back in June, Northampton County Republicans were celebrating after Trump landed what turned out to be a knockout blow to President Joe Biden's aspirations for a second term.
Local Democrats cringed as a sick Biden struggled to answer questions at times, feeding into Republican attacks that he was too old for a second term.
But on Tuesday, about 30 Democrats watching from a Harris-Walz campaign watch party at Brü Daddy's Brewing Company on Hamilton Street roared their approval as Harris took Trump to task for denying the 2020 election results and accused the former president of being manipulated by foreign dictators.
Similarly, the room whooped and hollered when Harris stood up for abortion rights. Trump has bragged about appointing the Supreme Court justices who led to the reversal of Roe v. Wade, Harris said.
His actions allowed state governments to dictate what millions of American women can do with their bodies, she said.
"Go girl! Go girl!" one woman shouted, jumping to her feet and pumping her fist.
'She was prepared'
Meanwhile in Bethlehem Township, Northampton County Republicans rallied around Trump at a watch party at the county committee's headquarters.
They cheered on as he blamed Harris and Biden for sinking the economy and driving up inflation, but acknowledged this wasn't the one-sided affair they saw last time.
Trump’s "asset basically is he has certainly made it very clear he has a record to fall back on.”Nazareth resident Al Smith
Harris’s "assets were that she prepared," Nazareth resident Al Smith said from the Republican watch party.
Trump’s "asset basically is he has certainly made it very clear he has a record to fall back on.” It was not the sort of debate defined by a few breakthrough moments, Smith said.
That preparation appeared to let Harris pull off a bit of stage magic when asked about the Biden administration's slow response to the crisis at the southern border.
After discussing her history as a prosecutor, she shifted her attention to Trump's focus on conspiracy theories. His rhetoric, she said, has gotten old and negatively effected the size of the crowds at his rallies.
Rather than attack Democrats on the southern border — something his campaign has been doing for a year — Trump lost focus.
He spent most of his time promoting his rallies and speaking about claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating their neighbor's pets.
Trump's response drew incredulous laughs from the Democratic crowd, but Harris' non-answer didn't go unnoticed.
'Need a little more substance'
After the debate, Christopher Alexander of Allentown said he had hoped to hear more nuance from Harris on issues such as the border.
People he speaks with are concerned about how the crisis will be addressed and deserve an answer, he said.
"Her overall message was that she will be a president for all Americans. That's great and all, but we need a little more substance than just that."Christopher Alexander of Allentown
"Her overall message was that she will be a president for all Americans," Alexander said. "That's great and all, but we need a little more substance than just that."
Much of the Republican crowd's attention was focused on the people asking the questions.
Unlike the June debate, moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis of ABC News pushed back on some of Trump’s claims, including that he won the 2020 election.
The pair earned jeers throughout the night with several saying the moderators were unfairly interfering on Harris’s behalf.
“They're supposed to moderate the debate, not say what a candidate said was wrong,” said Hellertown resident Ken Thompson.
“Whatever the candidate said should stand on its own and let the people decide whether what a person said was factual.”
ABC News held the debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, the largest city in one of the race's most crucial swing states.
Harris acknowledged the setting while speaking about fracking and her energy policy. Davis said Harris had shifted her stance from wanting to ban fracking in 2020 to supporting it now.
Harris said she supports an energy-independent America; she noted that the Biden administration has significantly increased domestic oil production and that she cast the deciding vote in the Inflation Reduction Act, which created more leases for fracking.
Advances in fracking have made Pennsylvania one of the largest producers of natural gas in the country.
But Harris' reversals on fracking, gun control and border security opened her to one of Trump's strongest moments of the night.
"Everything that she believed three years ago and four years ago is out the window. She's going to my philosophy now. In fact, I was going to send her a MAGA hat," Trump said to the delight of the Republicans watching in Bethlehem Township.
'Moving forward together'
But the people watching from the debate parties recognized the race won't be decided by the people who are likely to turn up at watch parties organized by the local parties.
Each side was confident, however, that their candidate made the better pitch to independent voters.
“I think he showed that he has a vision for America, and that vision is the one that got us to a state of prosperity four years ago, of security, of being a respected power in the world. And I think he did that again tonight.”Northampton County Republican Committee Chairman Glenn Geissinger
Northampton County Republican Committee Chairman Glenn Geissinger said the simple question most voters face is whether they're better off today compared to Trump's tenure.
“I think he showed that he has a vision for America, and that vision is the one that got us to a state of prosperity four years ago, of security, of being a respected power in the world." Geissinger said.
"And I think he did that again tonight.”
Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk, one of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention, pointed to Harris' appeals to decency and American democracy.
Trump's fearmongering has gotten old, and voters are looking for a new option, Tuerk said.
"I'm enthusiastic about our country turning the page on this dark chapter in our history and moving forward together," Tuerk said.
"This is Kamala Harris's new way forward for all of us."
