Harris’ spouse stumps in Valley
Husband of VP candidate pumps up area Dem crowd
Doug Emhoff, the kind of attorney called “high-powered” in stories and headlines, is at least as good a cheerleader as lawyer, it seems.
Showing no signs that a grinding get-out-the-vote campaign is wearing him out, the husband of vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris whipped up a modest crowd of Democratic volunteers in Allentown on Wednesday, promising that a vote for Biden-Harris is a way out of the “darkness” of the Trump years and into the light of a restored America.
“We’re going to turn Pennsylvania a deep, dark blue,” the spirited Emhofftold the gathering in the parking lot of the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers headquarters. “We’re going to elect my friend, the great Joe Biden, and someone I love very much, my wife, Kamala D. Harris, senator and next vice president of the United States.”
As a surrogate for the campaign, Emhoff, 56, has been crisscrossing the country, lighting fires under Democrats to make sure the polls — showing Biden with a lead in many states and a fighting chance in some traditional Republican strongholds such as Georgia — are sustained by a strong ground game.
Pennsylvania is essential. President Donald Trump, who won here by just 44,000 votes four years ago, rallied thousands of supporters Monday outside a medical equipment supply company in Hanover Township, Northampton County. It was a typical Trump extravaganza, crowded and boisterous and not strictly adhering to COVID19 prevention practices recommended by health officials.
The Emhoff appearance, by contrast, featured universal masking and the conspicuous cleaning of the podium between speakers. The promise to heed scientific advice on the coronavirus is one of the core promises of the Democratic campaign.
Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania has narrowed slightly over the past week, according to polling data aggregators fivethirtyeight.com and RealClearPolitics. com. And because Hilary Clinton went into the election with a polling lead four years ago, Biden supporters are reluctant to make predictions.
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” said Alissa Jebitsch of Allentown, a Biden-Harris volunteer. “Joe and Kamala are the best people for the job.”
Jebitsch said Trump has enacted economic policies that favor the rich — “the majority of people aren’t rich,” she said — and ignored the civil unrest that swept the nation this year over police killings of Black men and women.
“Weneed someone with integrity,” she said.
Outside the gates of the IBEW parking lot, a handful of Trump supporters kept up a sustained racket as speakers took the podium. U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, the 7th District incumbent, was greeted with chants of “Lisa Scheller,” her Republican opponent’s name. Wild said the way the election goes in her district likely will reflect the way it goes in Pennsylvania as a whole.
“The entire country is looking to what we do right here,” she said.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said the clock is winding down on the race, so the urgency is growing.
“We’ve got five days and a wake-up left to cast our ballots,” he said. “We’ve got five days and a wake-up left to restore empathy and decency to this country.”
It fell to Shapiro to introduce Emhoff, and he did so with a playful variation on the traditional title of the vice president’s spouse.
“The next Second Dude of the country,” he said.
Emhoff said he has been “running through walls and crawling over glass” on behalf of the campaign.
“I want you to join me in doing that,” he said. “We’ve just got to finish strong.”