Photo: Kayla Wolf Associated Press Democratic supporters hold signs in support of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee in the 2024 presidential race, during a protest at West Allis Central High School, Tuesday, July 23, 2024, in West Allis, Wash. Wisconsin.
Elodie Mazein – Agence France-Presse in Allentown
Published on July 23
- United States
“I have the first Harris billboard in my town,” says Bill Leiner, a fervent volunteer for the Democratic presidential campaign in the Allentown area, a city of 125,000 inhabitants located in the crucial state of Pennsylvania.
“As soon as I heard it was Harris, I cut it out” to remove President Joe Biden’s name “and taped it up,” he tells AFP, proud of his DIY work which allowed him to quickly have signage bearing the sole name of Kamala Harris, vice-president of the United States and now a candidate for the White House.
Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race on Sunday “galvanizes people” and “I think we’re going to have a blue wave,” the color of the Democrats, confides the 70-year-old nurse, sitting in the garden of his house located in a residential neighborhood.
And, to take over, there was no doubt in his mind that it had to be the vice president “because if we don’t choose Kamala Harris, we lose the election.”
“I’m optimistic,” he adds.
“She’s going to tear [Donald Trump] to pieces because she’s already on the case. The prosecutor against the repeat offender,” notes Mr. Leiner, referring to the former’s career as a magistrate and the latter’s recent criminal conviction.
A few meters away, in his shed, dozens of placards from old election campaigns and social awareness campaigns are piled up.
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Like him, Jimmy Spang Jr. is not his first campaign and he has known “Uncle Joe” since his time as a United States senator (1973-2009).
“I went to pick him up several times at the airport, I consider him a friend,” he tells AFP, sitting at his usual table in the historic Ritz restaurant Barbecue — his “conference hall” — known for its ice cream.
A few steps away is the Allentown Fairgrounds, where he ensured security for a very long time.
“Joe is a good man,” he said through a tight throat, before bursting into tears. “I’m upset because he didn’t do anything wrong. He doesn't deserve the way he was treated. »
“If Joe supports Kamala, I support Kamala. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense,” said Mr. Spang, 66.
Retired from the security company he founded and whose crest he wears on his polo shirt, he is now in charge of event security for the local Democratic committee.
Kamala Harris will “take up the torch” and she “will succeed” because she has “the mind of a prosecutor,” says Mr. Spang, very moved, particularly at the idea of a second Trump presidency.
“If Trump wins, the country will be in great danger because of the discord sown by the people who control his campaign,” he fears.
For Shapiro
For Bill Leiner, the nurse, the only motivation for the billionaire’s candidacy is “to avoid going to jail, as [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu did.”
Reproaching the Republican's lies “as numerous as the drops of the downpour that has just fallen”, he says he is “very optimistic” that Kamala Harris will make short work of it by “confronting him with the facts”.
Concerning their favorite for the vice-presidency, the two activists put forward the same name: Josh Shapiro, Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, one of the “swing states“, these key states that should be decisive in November.
The Harris and Shapiro duo — or “Kamala and Josh “, as he talks about it – it's a “sacred union”, says Jimmy Spang, imagining a Joe Biden in the role of wise man and, why not, with a position of “special advisor” in the White House.
Without being involved in the campaign, J. Marc Rittle speaks of “the great hope and enthusiasm” he felt upon learning of Joe Biden's resignation.
“In my area, we don't really have a choice but to vote blue,” says the executive director of New Bethany, a nonprofit organization that helps people in economic and social difficulties.
“I’m for Harris. […] I really think that a Harris administration will take us far,” he adds. “Vote blue,” he enjoins.