A novel Monday for Reading, the staunch industrial town an hour west of Philadelphia and a star attraction on the eve of a gripping election.
For months, Pennsylvania, the furnace of 20th-century America, had been flagged as the state both parties needed. Reading is the state’s fourth-largest city and is a Latino stronghold.
On a sleepy morning, Republican supporters began to gather around the Santander Arena on Penn Street ahead of the afternoon rally of Donald Trump, the penultimate event of what has been a wild campaign for the New Yorker. Kamala Harris would host one of her closing rallies in nearby Allentown, in neighbouring Lehigh County.
Aggregate polling shows the presidential race tied. So on the final day, Pennsylvania has become the literal battleground of a suffocatingly close campaign, with 11th-hour canvassing and lawsuits launched before official voting day. But outside the arena, the mood is as sunny as the morning.
“We feel very special,” says Sarah Torres, who lives in the Latino-oriented historical downtown. She has spent months volunteering for the Trump campaign and is optimistic that all of those hours will pay off. Her team found out a week ago that Trump would spend the final hours of his campaign with her community.
[ US election night guide: When will we know the result and how does it all work?Opens in new window ]
“I think the Latino vote is very important. The epicentre of the election in 2020 was here in Berks County: the 72 per cent of the Latino votes in Berks County elected Joe Biden. So, both parties know how important this county is in Pennsylvania. Our Republican registration went up seven points so I am sure they know we are important. This is 78.8 per cent Latino and that vote is so important.”
Although Trump carried Berks County in 2020 as well as 2016, there is a reason for his late visit. Last week’s off-colour “island of garbage” joke about Puerto Rico by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at Trump’s homecoming rally in Madison Square Garden shone a spotlight on the half million Latino/Hispanic community nestled into central Pennsylvania.
Of Reading’s 95,000 residents, 69 per cent are Latino/Hispanic. Torres, as it happens, was born and raised in Puerto Rico before coming here. She is the eldest of seven, all Republican. When news of that joke started coursing through the globe, she knew it would upset some people. But it was, she stresses, a joke.
“To me it was not a big deal. He is a comedian; it is dark humour and he is the king of roast. So, he is gonna say stupid things and people need to laugh about it or not. My sister on the other hand – there is 16 years between us – she was offended. She was saying she needed to re-evaluate her vote, you know: I cannot believe this is going on. But then when president Trump was so kind and immediately clarified that they had nothing to do with it and that the comedian was… stupid for lack of a better term, we all came back in.
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“The only candidate who represents our values – pro-family, pro-life, pro-business – is Trump. So where is the other choice to go to? We were not offended.”
When canvassing for congressional candidate Neil Young in the suburb of Glenside on Sunday, Torres was struck by the number of residents who declined bumper and window stickers but who told them they were voting Trump.
“They’d say, ‘nah, I don’t want any trouble with neighbours’. But they already have voted for Trump or are getting ready to vote on election day. We have a transportation hotline and we are already getting calls from the same people we spoke with so we are certain they just felt stigmatised by voting Trump.”
Torres is a single mother whose son has just started college. As a taxpaying worker who qualifies for no benefits, she says she has earned an average of five dollars hourly less under the Biden-Harris administration than she used to and feels the current government “has a foot on my neck allowing me a little bit of air just so I won’t die. But I can’t breathe.”
The visit of a presidential candidate to any city sucks the life out of the downtown, with parking restricted and streets blocked off. Most businesses just stay closed. So, Reading has a sleepy Sunday feel. A few blocks away, though, Cynthia Ventura is about to embark on another few hours of knocking doors, on behalf of Kamala Harris.
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She is completely baffled as to why Latinos would vote for Trump. She is worried about the threat of mass deportations not just on the community here in Reading but for the country in general.
“I’m American but you don’t see Americans on their knees, picking [harvesting]… none of that. If we get rid of all those people, what is going to happen? We need them here. Everything is going to shut down if that happens. So that is one of my main concerns: why is he trying to do that? I understand that some bad people come from different countries too to try and commit crimes here but maybe create an operation where they go after those people and not the good hardworking people.
“People are fearful. They are asking questions. What are we going to do? There is a lot… it is different than the last election. A lot more people are voting.”
If she shares any view with the Republican supporters a 10-minute walk away, it’s that Berks county and Reading could play an outsized role in on Tuesday night.
“I actually think Reading is one of the main cities that determines who wins. In the whole State.”
And whoever wins Pennsylvania…
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