Michelle Obama and Alicia Keys rallied for Kamala Harris in Norristown, with thousands turned away

There were so many lines outside Norristown Area High School on Saturday evening, it was hard to tell what direction they were going in. Thousands were hoping to see former first lady Michelle Obama and musician Alicia Keys, surrogates for Vice President Kamala Harris, who made the trip to Montgomery County just three days before the presidential election.

Thousands were turned away due to fire safety capacity constraints.

Montgomery County — where Gov. Josh Shapiro got his political start — is a Democratic stronghold, and voter turnout in the powerful Philadelphia suburbs can seriously impact who wins the presidential race in Pennsylvania, and therefore, the whole race.

“You know I love you, because I don’t like politics, and I’m out here again,” Obama said to an overflow crowd that filled the school auditorium as much as the fire marshal would allow. “But this race is important, and what happens in this county and in this state absolutely matters. That is why we are here.”

“You are so powerful and so important — you are the most important, actually,” Keys said to the Pennsylvania voters, one visibly starstruck with her mouth agape.

The celebrity guests then went to the main stage, in a gymnasium full of nearly 4,000 people.

Keys emphasized the importance of voting up and down the ballot, using the fight for women’s suffrage as an example of the power of Congress. Shapiro told the crowd that Pennsylvanians get to decide not just the next president, but what values the country holds.

“It actually may be the only thing Kamala Harris and Donald Trump agree on,” Shapiro said to the energized crowd. “Whoever wins Pennsylvania is likely to be the next president of the United States.”

Obama gave a 30-minute speech in which she described Trump — or as she and Keys called him, “Kamala’s opponent” — as an embodiment of a hatred that’s existed in the country for years but has become more insidious, cunning, and bombastic. She said whether his platform resonates with enough people is part of “the great experiment we call democracy.”

Bonita Patterson, 69, a Philadelphia teacher from Drexel Hill attending the rally, said that while she supports Harris, she would vote for anyone decent running against Trump, even a Republican — and she’s voted Democrat all her life.

“I feel like he opened up a bandage that had a lot of puss underneath,” she said. “And that’s why everybody feels free to say and do whatever they want now, and racism seems to be what’s going up instead of what’s going down.”

Another attendee, Sonya Harris, 53, a Norristown sales manager whose son attends the high school, said she phone-banked, canvassed, and attended several rallies for the first time this year. She believes Montco voters will turn out, noting that she’s noticed more campaign signs in the county than past years.

“We have to win,” she said. “There’s really no alternative. We just can’t go back to chaos and confusion and all that Donald Trump brings, we just can’t.”

In her remarks, Obama said the energy for Harris on the campaign trail is reminiscent of her husband’s own run.

“Yes we can!” someone shouted from the crowd.

“We did, and we can do it again,” Obama responded.

She also urged attendees to take action in the final stretch by having an uncomfortable conversation, knocking on doors, or driving people to the polls.

“Folks, the process will go on with or without you,” she said. “Decisions will be made, judges will be appointed, laws passed.”

Biden won the election in Pennsylvania by less than 82,000 votes in 2020. Obama said that breaks down to less than nine votes per precinct. She also pointed to a 2020 Iowa congressional race that was won by six votes.

“Six folks, ya’ll, that’s your group chat,” Obama said. “That’s your fantasy football league, or at least half of it. So just think about it, maybe you and your friends can swing the whole presidential election. That is possible, that is the power.”

Obama said progress in the country is comparable to building a skyscraper, scaling a mountain, or making a sandcastle — “a lot easier to destroy than to build up.” She said that despite working each day for incremental progress, one outcome can swiftly and mercilessly reverse course, whether it’s a hurricane, a pandemic-causing virus, or “a small man trying to make himself feel big by pouring gasoline on other people’s genuine pain and anger and fear.”

“You can spend a lifetime carefully, painstakingly constructing something brick by brick, but it takes only one big wave, one strong gust of wind, and all your efforts can be swept away in an instant,” she said. “That’s what’s at stake in this election.”