How are voters in swing states, like Pennsylvania, thinking about the first woman of color to run at the top of the ticket? NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Kim Lyons with the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
In Pittsburgh, in a neighborhood called the Hill District where we've been interviewing voters about the changes in the presidential election. This is a historically Black neighborhood. You can see signs of trouble - vacant buildings, vacant lots - and also signs of revival. I'm looking at a brand-new supermarket that opened just this year in a busy shopping area.
The people we've been talking with include Francine Thomas. She's a nurse, and she is excited that there is a Black woman running for president of the United States - Kamala Harris.
FRANCINE THOMAS: Oh, I think it's great. Yeah, I'm for a woman up in the White House. I like her style. I like that she's for real and honest, and I think that she's a God-given woman.
INSKEEP: Thomas says she's part of a loose network of residents who urge people to vote, and they will be supporting Harris.
THOMAS: I'm going to volunteer. And I know political groups around the area, and we're already on it.
INSKEEP: Not everybody we met in the Hill District felt that way. Adrienne Dillworth (ph) said she had mixed feelings about Harris. We spoke while dodging cars in a grocery store parking lot.
ADRIENNE DILLWORTH: I think they should have put out a broader net for candidates to see who could be actually the best and not just, you know, like, OK, we're just going to push the VP for the position.
INSKEEP: Why do you have mixed feelings about Vice President Harris?
DILLWORTH: Just some of her history from...
INSKEEP: Here, we better get away from this. I don't want to...
DILLWORTH: That's OK.
INSKEEP: It would be bad for the interview if you were run over in the middle of the interview.
DILLWORTH: Yeah. No, we're not going to have that.
INSKEEP: All right.
DILLWORTH: From just some of what I'm hearing from what - of her history of some of the people that she's had incarcerated in the past.
INSKEEP: Dillworth has been talking with her son about Harris' record as a prosecutor in California. Some progressive groups accused her of being too tough on defendants, which leads to criticism in a historically Black neighborhood where many people feel they've been targeted by police.
So what does all this mean in a swing state that could decide the presidential election? We've called Kim Lyons, who's an editor with the Pennsylvania Capital-Star here in Pittsburgh. Good morning.
KIM LYONS: Good morning. How are you?
INSKEEP: OK, thanks so much. What do you make of what you heard there?
LYONS: Honestly, I think that is what I would expect. And I think, as you saw in the Hill District, this is a neighborhood that has not always benefited as much as other parts of the city from some of the development that's happened in Pittsburgh over the years. So I think this is a neighborhood that's very diverse. It's very, you know, nuanced as far as people that live there. And I think it is not surprising to me that someone would be a little wary of a very fast process like this.
It's only been the past few elections that progressive candidates have kind of pushed for some different ideas apart from a Democratic Party machine that really kind of controlled things and controlled candidates for a very long time. So it makes a lot of sense to me there would be some sort of skepticism of a process. It seems like it's gone kind of fast...
INSKEEP: Interesting...
LYONS: ...Just based on the past few elections we've had.
INSKEEP: ...But, of course, Harris needs a broad coalition.
LYONS: Yeah.
INSKEEP: Also this week in this area, we spoke with a Democrat in a more suburban area, a mostly white area, who felt that Harris' law enforcement record was a plus.
LYONS: Yeah, and, I mean, I think that's borne out as well. I mean, you're going to kind of see that disparity between a more urban neighborhood in Pittsburgh, where, you know, there's been a lot of - especially several years ago during the George Floyd protest, there was a lot of kind of feeling of - that the police were not as in sync with the communities in this - within the city. And, you know, I think that is fairly, you know, borne out by what you found.
But, you know, I think that - let's remember that western Pennsylvania sent the first Black woman from Pennsylvania to Congress several years ago when they elected Summer Lee. So...
INSKEEP: Oh, yeah.
LYONS: ...I think this is a very diverse part of the state that is not easily sort of summed up by just going to one urban area, one suburban area or - it's very diverse, very nuanced. It's a lot of kind of differences...
INSKEEP: Yeah.
LYONS: ...Among communities within different neighborhoods.
INSKEEP: And a lot of complexities for the presidential candidates and vice presidential...
LYONS: Sure.
INSKEEP: ...Candidates. I want to talk about the fact that western Pennsylvania is part of old industrial Appalachia. We're in hill country here.
LYONS: Yeah.
INSKEEP: And JD Vance, the new Republican vice presidential candidate, wants to appeal to Appalachia specifically. How is that coming across in western Pennsylvania?
LYONS: Well, Steve, I don't know that you appeal to Pittsburgh Steelers fans by bringing in the Cleveland Browns quarterback. I don't know how well that's going to fly.
INSKEEP: Oh.
LYONS: And I would also note...
INSKEEP: OK.
LYONS: ...That Middletown, Ohio, where JD Vance grew up is not Appalachia. It is western Ohio, with all due respect. But I think his book "Hillbilly Elegy" rubbed a lot of people in Appalachia the wrong way - a lot of stereotypes that people don't really appreciate.
INSKEEP: Ah, so you think that there's limited appeal for Vance in Pennsylvania, even though it's said he's going to park in this state.
LYONS: He can park in the state. That'd be fine. I'm sure people will be happy to hear from him. But I think even as you get further east - as you get into the Philadelphia suburbs, I don't know how much an Ohio connection is going to help. They are probably much less so. I think what Vance brings Republicans is you're going to get votes in areas that were already going to vote Republican.
INSKEEP: Kim Lyons is an editor with the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Thanks so much.
LYONS: Oh, yeah, thanks so much for having me.
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