ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz glad handed supporters Friday afternoon at a Southside Allentown Dominican restaurant during a whirlwind tour of eastern Pennsylvania.
The Minnesota governor thanked about 50 people at El Tipico Restaurante at 410 W. Emaus Ave. for their efforts to get Vice President Kamala Harris elected president. With just 11 days left in the grueling 2024 election cycle, he recognized that many people have had their fill of the campaigns.
“I know you run into people who are tired of it. They hear it on all the time. They hear the negativeness, and they say things like, ‘I’m just not that into politics.’ Well, too bad. Politics is into you,” Walz said.
He encouraged those in the room to reach out to their friends and families to make sure that they’ve made plans to vote on Election Day. The ability of local organizers to get people to the polls could influence national policy on health care, the economy and more over the next four years, he said.
“It’s going to be close. You know that it’s going to go right through Pennsylvania, and more than likely, it’s going to go right through Allentown,” Walz said.
Their strong community connections — instances of neighbors helping neighbors — is the touchstone of the Harris-Walz campaign, he said.
"That's how we do it. They try to do it by getting billionaires like Elon Musk to give people $1 million to register to vote," Walz said, citing the Space X tycoon's recent giveaways to conservative voters in swing states.
The pitstop was part of a Walz barnstorm across eastern Pennsylvania. He touched down at Lehigh Valley International Airport in between a morning of events in Philadelphia and a rally scheduled Friday evening in Scranton.
Political observers say the race between Harris and former President Donald Trump is neck-and-neck. Pennsylvania could prove to be the deciding swing state, and the Lehigh Valley has a reputation as a critical bellwether.
The Democratic ticket has heavily courted the local Latino vote this election cycle. Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and now Walz have all come to Allentown in the past two months and specifically reached out to Latino voters. Polls show the race is too close to call, and the Harris campaign is hoping that making inroads with the Hispanic population here — more than half of its 125,845 residents — could give it the edge it needs to win Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes.
Friday's event was shorter and more intimate than Walz's Sept. 21 visit to Freedom High School in Bethlehem Township, where he rallied about 1,500 people. As a throng of local and national media looked on from the lobby Friday, Walz shook hands and posed for pictures with supporters in the casual dining room below a neon El Tipico sign.
The short campaign stop created some major headaches for Lehigh Valley residents. State and local police shut down roads, and the Allentown School District dismissed students early to due to the motorcade.
Abigail Preletz said she was driving when she saw commotion.
“I was actually on my way home today, and saw a large police presence, and I just decided to do some research, and saw that Governor Walz was going to be here, so decided to stop by and show my support,” Preletz said.
