PHILADELPHIA: In the home stretch of an extraordinarily tight US presidential race, Kamala Harris is courting support in the largest city of the largest battleground state \u2014 one voter at a time.
\nLocked in a political duel with Republican Donald Trump, the vice president took to the streets of Philadelphia on Sunday for a frantic ground-game of campaigning.
\nIn multiple stops across ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the City of Brotherly Love, Harris hugged voters, cuddled babies, wooed patrons at local establishments, and quoted scripture in a predominantly Black church.
\nWith barely a week to go, Harris is leaving nothing to chance in Philadelphia, where she must run up her vote tally to win the ultimate battleground state of Pennsylvania.
\nHarris rolled up to Philly Cuts barber shop in the largely Black neighborhood of West Philadelphia to meet residents, before ducking into the African-American-themed Hakim\u2019s Bookstore & Gift Shop.
\n\u201cI\u2019m so happy to see you,\u201d Harris told an elderly woman, Ann Hughes, before embracing her and confiding: \u201cThey\u2019re working me to the bone.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a frantic pace in the waning days of a bitter presidential race that has seen both candidates use confrontational language, with Trump in particular accused of toxic attacks on Harris.
\n\u201cShe\u2019s boots to the ground,\u201d 43-year-old African-American woman Myrda Scott, who runs a financial firm, told AFP as she awaited Harris at a youth basketball rec center rally.
\n\u201cEspecially here in Philadelphia we like touching, feeling, hearing, seeing the people and being personable with them.\u201d
\nTrump has repeatedly campaigned in Pennsylvania too. While he courts his bread-and-butter voters including white males, Christian conservatives, and rural residents, he has also sought to peel away Black male support from Harris.
\nRosa Jones, a Black woman recently laid off from her customer service job, is stressed because her son is voting for Trump.
\nWhile Scott expressed confidence about a Harris victory, \u201cI have some jitters\u201d about the election, 68-year-old Jones told AFP.
\nBut she believes Harris needs to keep at it with \u201cthese little gatherings here, where she\u2019s sitting with everyday people up close.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris\u2019s route took her through a working class Puerto Rican neighborhood to Freddy and Tony\u2019s Restaurant, where she spoke with voters, snapped selfies and addressed diners.
\n\u201cTruly the path to victory runs through Philly and through Pennsylvania,\u201d she said. \u201cIt runs through all of you.\u201d
\nAwilda Cubero, a Puertorriquena who moved to Philadelphia two decades ago, was glowing about Harris\u2019s round of intimate get-out-the-vote stops.
\n\u201cShe has to come, in person, to talk to the people,\u201d she told AFP. \u201cThat\u2019s politics,\u201d added, Cubero, 66, rubbing the fingers of one hand together. \u201cThat\u2019s the connection.\u201d
\nAt the Church of Christian Compassion, Harris hugged supporters in the predominantly Black congregation and then preached at the pulpit.
\n\u201cYes these next nine days will test us,\u201d Harris said, urging Philadelphians to vote early and knock on doors.
\n\u201cJoy cometh in the morning,\u201d she added, as congregants lept to their feet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PHILADELPHIA: In the home stretch of an extraordinarily tight US presidential race, Kamala Harris is courting support in the largest city of the largest battleground state \u2014 one voter at a time. Locked in a political duel with Republican Donald Trump, the vice president took to the streets of Philadelphia on Sunday for a frantic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-439948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n