These Republicans are on a mission to persuade Pa. GOP voters to back Kamala Harris.

MANHEIM TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Geoff Duncan, the former lieutenant governor of Georgia, described himself as a “very conservative” Republican, but on Tuesday he urged fellow GOP members to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Doing the right thing will never be the wrong thing,” Duncan said. “If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 as a Republican, it doesn’t mean you’re a Democrat. It just simply means you’re a patriot.”

Duncan joined three former Republican members of Congress for the first Republicans for Harris rally in Pennsylvania at a renovated barn-turned-catering hall in Lancaster County.

About 200 people — a mix of Republicans, independents, and Democrats — showed up for the event hosted by the Harris campaign, which is trying to make inroads in more rural areas in hopes of squeezing out just enough votes in places like Lancaster County to win the state in November. Polls show Harris with an extremely narrow lead in Pennsylvania, the state looking increasingly likely to determine the election.

While Trump won Lancaster County by 16 points in 2020, Democrats saw a huge uptick in votes compared with 2016. They see an opportunity here. Harris’ campaign has an office in nearby Ephrata and this week released a TV ad featuring a Republican farmer from Malvern who is supporting Harris after twice voting for Trump.

The gathering was a mix of group therapy, airing of grievances, and suggestions on how to message to Republicans about Harris.

While the Harris campaign aims to illustrate Republican support, Trump has been winning over ancestral Democrats in places like Lancaster County for years.

At the nearby Ephrata Fair on Tuesday, Jim Klein, 52, a retired naval officer and DJ, said he felt the Democratic Party left him, not the other way around. He was a Democrat who voted for President Barack Obama but switched shortly afterward. “Four years ago, Trump really started putting things together,” Klein said. “There wasn’t so much price gouging. I thought things were a lot better.”

The Republicans for Harris group will focus primarily on four areas: Allegheny and Butler Counties; Erie County; the suburbs of Harrisburg; and Philadelphia’s collar counties.

“Those are the population centers,” said Ann Womble, the former chair of the Lancaster Republican Party, who cochairs the Republicans for Harris group with former U.S. Rep. Jim Greenwood of Bucks County.

Her home of Lancaster County also presents an opening for Harris with non-Democrats, she argued, with its history of Mennonite influences.

“There’s a moral quality to that neighborliness,” Womble said. “It has made a lot of Republicans in Lancaster County very uncomfortable to know that their party has put up somebody that they cannot in good conscience feel they would want as their neighbor.”

Most of the work is person-to-person conversations, Womble said, adding she wished there were more than six weeks to have them.

The Republican speakers didn’t pull punches about their party’s nominee.

Joe Walsh, a Republican former congressman from Illinois who briefly ran for president in 2020, said Trump’s attempt to overturn the election should be disqualifying.

“He’s gonna do it again. … It doesn’t matter if he loses every state or if he loses by a vote,” Walsh said. “I believe Trump is a threat. … You have to believe that, and if you believe that, then you should smile at this difficult opportunity the Lord has put with us as Republicans.” .

Duncan said: “He steps on the Constitution every minute of every day.”

A growing number of prominent Republicans have endorsed Harris, including former Trump cabinet members and national security leaders.

Former U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R., Va.) mocked remarks Trump made Monday night in Indiana County vowing to protect women. “Would you ever have, as a protector, someone found guilty in a sex crimes matter?” Comstock asked.

A jury last year found Trump liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996. Trump has denied the accusation.

“He couldn’t work at the mall, he couldn’t go in the military,” she said, referencing Trump’s felony convictions.

Patrick Gerlach, who described himself as a “recovering Republican,” attended the event in a “Vote Decency” baseball hat. He distributed signs outside with the same saying.

“So many times, people have said to us, ‘I don’t want to put a sign up because I’m afraid of my neighbors,’” Gerlach said. As an alternative, he said, he thinks people would view a “Vote Decency” sign as a subtle endorsement for Harris.

“Something’s broken and we need to acknowledge that,” Gerlach said. “And to heck with party and policy. … You got one person … she smiles, she laughs, she’s decent, you know? And then you’ve got somebody that is just, he’s just a stinkpot.”