Harris says ‘victory runs through Philly’ while courting Black and Latino voters in Pennsylvania

By Gregory Krieg, Priscilla Alvarez and Jeff Simon, CNN

(CNN) — The road to the White House goes through Philadelphia, Vice President Kamala Harris said on Sunday, as she made several stops across the city that could determine her fate in Pennsylvania — and with it, the race to 270 electoral votes.

Harris was joined in the afternoon by Mayor Cherelle Parker during a visit to Hakim’s Bookstore & Gift Shop, a Black-owned business in West Philadelphia. Speaking to a voter there, she projected confidence.

“We’re going to do it,” Harris said. “Victory runs through Philly and it runs through Pennsylvania.”

Over the course of the day, the vice president also attended a church service at a predominantly Black church, stopped at a barbershop, and popped into a Puerto Rican restaurant — all part of a concerted effort to court Black and Latino voters.

The Commonwealth sits at the base of the Democrats’ “blue wall,” along with Michigan and Wisconsin — states that Donald Trump swept in 2016 before Joe Biden did the same four years ago. Besides stopping at local businesses, Harris visited with a youth basketball team and rolled out a new campaign ad.

The spot aired during the Eagles football game on Sunday, featuring a clip of Trump, in 2020, saying, “Bad things happen in Philadelphia.”

“They don’t like us,” a narrator breaks in to say. “We don’t care.”

Pitting Trump against the city, with a special nod to its famously hostile sports fans, the ad — which went viral shortly after being dropped — issued a warning to the former president.

“Here’s the thing that people like Donald Trump don’t understand: We’re Philly. F—ing Philly,” the narrator says. “And when you fight us, we fight back. From 1776 to 4th and 26. So go ahead, talk whatever s–t you want, Donald. We’re voting soon.”

Harris’ message on Sunday, as she popped up in various vote-rich neighborhoods, was simple and consistent.

“The election is here, and the choice is truly in your hands,” Harris said during another event. “The path to victory runs right through all the leaders who are here, all of you.”

She also talked about the campaign’s effort to build a broad coalition. In some cases, that’s meant embracing conservative Republicans, like former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. In Philadelphia, it means convincing an overwhelmingly Democratic, but racially, culturally and economically diverse city, to almost uniformly back her.

“To all the friends here, I say, let’s be intentional about building community. Let’s be intentional about building coalitions,” Harris said. “Let’s be intentional about understanding we all have so much more in common than what separates us.”

Harris also directly addressed young voters, another demographic that could be pivotal in determining a race that both nationally and in the big battleground states is shaping us a coin toss.

“You are rightly impatient for change,” Harris said. “You who have only known the climate crisis, you are leaders in what we need to do to protect our planet. You who grew up with active shooter drills, you know what we have to do to fight for safety in our schools.”

She went on, again marking the election’s effect on the future of reproductive rights in America.

Shortly after taking the stage at an event in Philadelphia, though, Harris was interrupted by a pro-Palestinian protester and, as she’s done before, briefly cut away from her remarks to acknowledge the ongoing Israeli war in Gaza.

“We can, and we must seize this opportunity to end this war and bring the hostages home,” Harris said. “And I will do everything in my power to meet that end.”

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