Opinion | Last minute Kamala Harris rally was worth the effort

Vice President Kamala Harris held her last two rallies before Election Day on Monday, Nov. 4, in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Harris held multiple rallies in Pennsylvania in the days leading up to the election — two of which were on the day before the election in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia — due to how crucial a swing state Pennsylvania was. She followed supporters such as Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, the democratic nominee for Attorney General Eugene DePasquale, Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, D-Pa., Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. and comedian Cedric the Entertainer on stage to close out her campaign. But just hours before the rally, Harris’ team had to completely change the location after the Secret Service deemed the original location to be unsafe. This caused mass confusion and last-minute planning, bringing up the question of whether this rally would be worth it for Harris.

Pennsylvania has always been known for being a big swing stage in high-stakes elections, and 2024 was no exception. Both Harris and former President Donald Trump held rallies on the same day, around the same time, in Pittsburgh to try and urge voters to support them. Harris was originally supposed to have her rally at Point State Park in Pittsburgh, mere miles away from Trump’s rally at PPG Paints Arena, until her location was deemed unsafe and moved to Carrie Furnaces. Even with the sudden change, thousands packed Harris’ rally with only mere hours’ notice of the updated location. The sheer number of people who attended Harris’ rally made some people believe that Harris would, without a doubt, win the votes for Pennsylvania, although that was not the case. 

Harris and her guests were able to keep those in the crowd engaged and motivated for the day to come. Nearly every guest said Harris’ continuous motto, “We are not going back,” and the organizer of the rally, Claire Sorrel, told the crowd the U.S. would be “pulled forward by Kamala Harris or dragged back by Donald Trump.”

While there were extremely serious and heartfelt moments throughout the speeches — such as Austin Davis pleading, “I refuse my daughter to have fewer rights than her mother and granddaughter” — there were also plenty of light-hearted comments throughout. Davis described Trump’s recent “shift” at McDonald’s as “His little stunt,” and DePasquale described Trump himself as “The orange monster.” These moments kept the audience engaged in both the speaker and their message.

Throughout the rally, speakers touched on Roe v. Wade, tax policy and gun control. Even though many of those in the audience understood what Harris planned to do with these topics if she were to become president, it served as a final message and reminder to those in the audience what Harris’ values, opinions, thoughts, policies and messages were. It helped round out everything that has been said over the past few months during her tour and was a final inspiration for everyone to go out and make their voices heard by voting.

Harris herself was the final person to come onto the stage before the closing artist, Katy Perry. Harris urged those in the audience to please use the next 24 hours to reach out to those around them and tell them to vote. She also said an iconic line of hers to remind everyone that, “Your vote is your voice and your voice is your power.”

Instead of using hate in her speech, like some others do, Harris continued to use compassion and understanding, even saying, “So much about these last several years has been about trying to make people point their fingers at each other — have Americans point fingers at each other — to try and make people feel alone or feel small. But let us do the work as we work toward this win of building up community and coalition and reminding everyone that we have so much more in common than what separates us. Let that be our goal.” 

Harris did an incredible job of working to try and show those in both parties that she is not for one opinion or one type of America. She is working to help all Americans, no matter who you vote for, and she works to make sure that everyone is treated the same and as they should be. She does this not only through her words but with how she presents herself, how she interacts with the crowd and the articulation that she uses throughout her speech to try and amplify her message. Even though her speech and the rally were extremely last minute in comparison to Election Day, it was worth the effort.

With the election complete, we know that Trump won over Pennsylvania and secured the electoral votes for the state. But Harris’ rally and work were all worth it when looking closer. When looking at what parts of Pennsylvania voted Democratic, we see that both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia — where she had rallies that night — voted blue, even with Trump being in Pittsburgh on the same day. 

Harris used the short time she had to let her message be heard and to motivate not only those in the crowd but also those watching on TV and reading it the next day. If she changed even one voter’s mind, educated a young voter or motivated a young girl into thinking that she could one day be up on the same stage, then all of the work leading up was worth it.

Katie Jones is a first-year nursing student who mainly writes about pop culture, entertainment and social justice. You can write to her at kaj200@pitt.edu