Kamala Harris goes to church, visits small businesses, in yet another visit to Philadelphia

As Kamala Harris started speaking to congregants at a Black Evangelical church in West Philadelphia, a woman in the balcony shouted: “You already won!”

The vice president’s response was immediate: “God expects us to help him,” she said, pointing upward. “We got work to do.”

How heavily Philadelphia turns out in the next nine days could be the key to whether Harris wins Pennsylvania. And on a sunny autumn Sunday, Harris stopped in Black and Latino neighborhoods from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., reinforcing the city’s importance in the presidential election.

“At church, I learned faith was a verb,” she told the congregation at Church of Christian Compassion, urging them to get involved in the election. She quoted Scripture, saying that while weeping endures, “joy cometh in the morning and joy is on its way!”

The service included a stirring gospel rock band and belting vocalists who worshiped as flag dancers flung bright purple patterns through the air.

The Democrat hopes to connect that Sunday morning momentum to her campaign. The race in Pennsylvania has remained a dead heat for months and with more than a half-billion dollars pumped into ads, voters are getting inundated from both sides.

“I’m getting 999,999 texts and phone calls,” said Sharon Pearson, who lives next door to the Church of Christian Compassion. “It’s a lot.”

The campaign is hoping more intimate events like the ones Harris attended Sunday can break through, especially among Black and Latino voters, who polls show supporting former President Donald Trump in slightly higher numbers than in years past, despite still overwhelmingly backing Harris.

In contrast to intimate stops in a swing state, Trump was in New York City on Sunday for a speech at Madison Square Garden — a slightly perplexing move, given it’s in a solidly blue state in the homestretch of the election, but the event is likely to draw national attention. He held a rally at Pennsylvania State University in State College on Saturday.

Trump’s rhetoric has grown increasingly dark and aggressive as the campaign nears its end, even as Harris and many of his former advisers have described him as a fascist.

“We’ve become like a garbage can for the rest of the world,” the Republican candidate told the crowd in State College. “They’re dumping people into our country they don’t want because they’re too dangerous and too expensive. We’re not going to let this bulls— happen any longer.”

In Pennsylvania, low voter turnout in Philadelphia or an improvement for Trump with nonwhite groups could be devastating for Harris’ hopes. That’s the backdrop that sent her into Philly Cuts barbershop in West Philadelphia, after church on Sunday.

State Rep. Jordan Harris (D., Philadelphia) greeted her, noting barbershops were “kind of a sacred space.”

“It’s not my first time,” the vice president said.

She pitched the group on her plans for Black men specifically, saying she’d aim to expand work and home-buying opportunities and access to men’s health. She told a story about a Black male staffer of hers in the U.S. Senate who had died of colon cancer.

The conversation also covered misinformation in the election season that her supporters said had led some to back Trump.

“He’s putting tens of millions of dollars into various TV markets around the country,” said Harris. “And what I’m heartened by is that folks in the community ... frankly, don’t want to be played.”

Before she left, she was invited to sit in a “lucky” barber chair that had proven fortuitous for other politicians running for office in the city.

It was the 20th trip to the state for Harris this year and the eighth to Philadelphia. Trump has also made 20 visits to the state since January.

Outside of Philly Cuts, a crowd of supporters included curious Sunday shoppers checking out why the area was inundated with security vehicles.

For many of the onlookers at this stop near the University of Pennsylvania, their support for Harris was focused on abortion rights and fear of Trump.

“Anyone who is going to help maintain and hopefully bring back some of my rights as a human being is going to have my support,” said Candice Votava, as she kept an eye on the barbershop. “With abortion care, we’ve seen a lot of really horrific things coming out of Texas.”

Votava wasn’t the only Harris supporter who expressed fear about the future. Anna Steiner, who is originally from Eastern Europe, says Trump’s rhetoric is very familiar. She fears living under another authoritarian regime.

”I grew up in Communist Poland,” said Steiner. “I know what dictatorship is like.”

There was also anxiety among some supporters in the pews at the Church of Christian Compassion and at Hakim’s Bookstore and Gift Shop, where Ann Hughes, the mother of State Sen. Vincent Hughes greeted Harris.

Harris gave Ann Hughes a long embrace and reassured her. “I’ve got some great leaders helping me here. Don’t you worry. It’s gonna be OK. Don’t worry.”

Asked earlier in the day how she feels about the city’s support for her, Harris said she’s encouraged by what she’s seen in terms of early voting in Philadelphia.

While her Sunday visit was overwhelmingly embraced, her swing through Philly also crossed paths with some Trump voters. Outside of Freddy & Tony’s Puerto Rican restaurant in North Philadelphia, a voter said he was backing Trump because of crime and the economy.

And walking up to the Church of Christian Compassion’s front doors in the morning, Ron Griffin said he would not be voting for her.

“I’m against abortion, I’m against transsexual, gender stuff. I’m against all that because it’s against God’s word,” said Griffin. “Trump ain’t no better, but he’s for stuff that’s in the Bible. I have to ride with who is for the Lord.”

After popping into Freddy & Tony’s, Harris met privately with middle school basketball players at the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center before addressing a few thousand people there.

Some of the young players told Harris about a recent loss to a taller and seemingly older opponent. “Skill can make up for height,” the 5-foot-4 Harris told them.

During her speech afterward, Harris said young voters are rightly “impatient for change,” because of what they’ve lived through — natural disasters, active shooter drills in schools, and for young women, realizing they “now know fewer rights than your mothers and grandmothers.”

She encouraged people voting by mail not to wait “because the election is here and the choice, Philly, is truly in your hands.”

She also suggested a little assertive canvassing at their local Acme.

”Let’s spend these next nine days knowing we did everything we could,” Harris said. “That we connected with each other, with our neighbors, that we went up to perfect strangers in the grocery store.”