Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- The presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are intensifying efforts in Erie County, Pennsylvania, a critical area in the pivotal battleground state.
- Harris' team is leveraging significant fundraising advantages while Trump's campaign focuses on engaging infrequent voters.
- Erie County, which has historically aligned with the winning presidential candidate, is witnessing heightened campaign activity.
ERIE, Pennsylvania — The command center for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign in one of the most hotly contested counties in the most important election battleground state of Pennsylvania sits in a small room of a strip-mall office rented by Erie County's Republican Party.
The otherwise sleepy office comes to life a couple times a week when the two-person staff hosts the volunteer network the campaign calls Trump Force 47.
A few miles away in a bustling office in downtown Erie, paid staff and volunteers on Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign make phone calls, press new campaign buttons and organize watch parties and phone banking. A chalkboard keeps score of door-knocking: 12,000 households so far toward a goal of 20,000, or nearly one of five in the county.
With just four weeks before the Nov. 5 presidential election, the battle for Erie County — a historically must-win county in a must-win state — demonstrates the urgency of identifying and contacting individual voters in a campaign that remains stubbornly close, according to campaign staff and volunteers for both campaigns.
While the Harris campaign is using its sizable cash advantage and newfound enthusiasm to build a towering ground-game operation aimed at mobilizing supporters and identifying new voters, the Trump campaign is focused on infrequent voters and betting on a voter registration drive that has cut into the traditional Democratic advantage.
Harris and the Democratic Party raised $361 million in August compared to Trump and the Republicans' $130 million, and she spent nearly three times as much as her opponent that month, federal financial disclosures show.
"Trump and his team appear to be banking on the power of his personal pull," said Chris Borick, a pollster and political science professor at Pennsylvania's Muhlenberg College.
"Harris and the Democrats are investing deeply in a more traditional ground game here and thus this election will be a test of dramatically different strategies."
The volunteers and voters also described rising tensions as the campaigns dump millions of dollars on divisive digital and television ads, robo calls, text messages and door knocking.
"I've been pretty bombarded with mail, phone calls and texts," said Erin Miller, 38, a bartender and mother of six who recently moved to the state from Colorado and has yet to vote locally in a presidential election, making her a prime target for the campaigns.
With 19 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is the biggest prize among the battleground states that will decide the election.
Erie County, a blue-collar region with 177,000 registered voters, has voted with the winning presidential candidate for the last four elections.
Biden won Erie County in 2020 by less than 1,500 votes, or 1.03 percentage points, an even closer margin than his 1.2 percentage point win in Pennsylvania overall. In 2016, Trump won Erie County over Hillary Clinton by fewer than 2,000 votes.
Boots on the ground
The Harris campaign has found it hard work to mobilize Black voters who make up about 16% of the city's population, especially Black men, according to Reuters interviews.
Howard Pratchett, 48, a barber, said he plans to vote for Trump because he is more "factual" than Harris. "We don't care about LBGT rights. We don't care about, you know, abortion rights. We're not worried about that. They don't offer anything to the straight Black male voters," Pratchett said.
Monty Davis, 51, who runs a local youth program, said he appreciates President Joe Biden's efforts to lower costs and plans to vote for Harris. But he warned the energy among the Black community is not as high as it was with Presidents Barack Obama or Biden.
"It's just not that intense," Davis said.
As in other battleground states, the Trump camp is relying on deep-pocketed outside groups — like billionaire Elon Musk's America PAC — and a much looser network of supporters and volunteers to mobilize voters.
Since 2015, when Trump emerged as a leader in Republican politics, Republicans and outside groups have significantly narrowed the Democratic advantage in voting registrations in Erie and in Pennsylvania overall.
In 2015, Democrats enjoyed a roughly 33,000 voter registration advantage in Erie County, but that has been whittled down to 10,000, according to current county election records.
Statewide, Democrats have a roughly 338,400 voter registration advantage over Republicans, down from the commanding 892,624 advantage Democrats held in 2016, state voter data shows.
Sam Talerico, the county's Democratic chairman, conceded the Republican surge in registrations is unwelcome news.
"We certainly don't like to see those registration numbers converge, but that's the bad news. The good news is, you know, I still think we have an advantage with independents turning our way, and that's making a difference," he said.
Republicans also are banking on Trump's frequent visits — five rallies over three campaigns in Erie, including two visits this election. The rallies represent mobilizing opportunities as organizers register voters and collect cell phone numbers and email information.
Harris will make her first visit to Erie on Oct. 14. Her running mate Tim Walz visited in September.
And then there's Trump Force 47, the volunteer network that knocks on the doors of infrequent voters to determine whether they plan to vote and for whom. Volunteers win awards, such as hats and sweaters, for knocking on more doors.
"We are not trying to persuade anyone. It's more just that the campaign is trying to make sure that people who are already inclined to vote for Trump get out and vote," said volunteer Justin Berkheimer, 39, who works at a group home for people with mental disabilities.
