Voter apathy, barking dogs and fervent Donald Trump supporters confront Carin Pacifico as she knocks doors campaigning for Kamala Harris in her rural Pennsylvania community where Republicans outnumber Democrats roughly seven to three.
“You look great for 81,” she said to John, a registered Democrat, after knocking on his door as a US flag fluttered nearby.
She asked if he would back Harris in November’s knife-edge election.
“I’m not saying yes, I’m not saying no,” said John, a resident of Altoona in remote west Pennsylvania that was once a thriving railway hub, but is now a stronghold for Trump’s far-right MAGA, or Make America Great Again, movement.
“That’s saying he’s voting Trump without saying he’s voting Trump. The legendary Altoona politeness,” said Pacifico as she checked her handheld database of voters.
Votes in rural areas like Altoona, between Pennsylvania’s urban heartlands in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, will be vital to the Democrats’ chances of winning Pennsylvania — the swing state with the most electoral college votes.
But persuading undecided voters outside the state’s cities is an uphill challenge, says Pacifico, a slight woman in her 60s who retired from a career in finance before returning to her native Altoona.
Other voters who Pacifico called on as she toured a neat suburb of mostly standalone houses were less polite.
“I know who I am voting for. Now get off of my property,” shouted one woman who was listed as an independent on Pacifico’s sophisticated map-based canvassing app.
In a small office in downtown Altoona, where a wall of Harris campaign posters had been fashioned into a US flag, Gillian Kratzer honed her party’s rural battle plan, surrounded by maps of the area and door-knocking checklists.
Hunting rifles and hassle
“It’s an uphill battle. And people that work in democratic politics in rural areas, you know, we know that going in,” chair of PA Dems’ rural caucus Kratzer, 43, told AFP.
Around her, a steady stream of people called in to collect lawn signs or volunteer their time for canvassing.
“We want folks that are Democrats here to know that you absolutely get to speak up. You actually absolutely get to have your beliefs. It doesn’t matter if we’re outnumbered. You know, this is a democracy,” Kratzer added.
But on the doorstep, Pacifico does see supporters of the vice president hiding their politics for fear of retribution from Trump backers.
“There’s lots of secret Kamala voters out here,” she said.
“But everyone out here owns a hunting rifle and some of them are” — and Pacifico touched the side of her head.
“And others don’t want issues with the people they went to school with.”
As Pacifico continued her rounds with the Allegheny mountains in the near distance, she encountered a stark mix of positions.
Some were indifferent. In one home, a pro-Trump man lived with a Democratic wife. Some voters said they were turned off by leftist politics yet inspired by Harris.
A keen Harris supporter said she did not feel safe to put campaign signs up on her front lawn. “I don’t need the hassle,” she said.
“We’re really trying to encourage people who are sympathetic to Kamala and want something new to get out and vote, because it’s going to matter,” Pacifico said.
“Even just getting people to run as Democrats out here is really difficult…, but it’s to strengthen the total so that Kamala can win the whole state.”
‘Stay rural’
Political observers have described Pennsylvania as “Philadelphia and Pittsburgh separated by Alabama” — two major, multi-racial metropolises separated by a sprawling, largely white and conservative heartland.
“In the western part of Pennsylvania, we’re still dealing with a lot of the fallout from the steel industry collapsing decades ago, whereas in the southeast, we’re having an influx of new residents from all over the United States,” said Kyle Kopko, adjunct professor of political science at Elizabethtown College.
Rural parts of the state have been buffeted by inflation, climate change as well as an outflow of younger, working age residents, he said.
The rural-urban divide is felt particularly by small countryside communities in the state battling with the ravages of opioid addiction.
“I think we are basically a forgotten people. You know, the focus is on cities,” said Kim Botteicher, 60, the founder of FAVOR which helps those living with addiction in her rural Pennsylvania community.
Botteicher said candidates for November’s election have not paid enough attention to the concerns of rural Pennsylvanians — even as their votes could be the difference between victory and defeat.
“I tend to think that being rural, we should always be rural and stay rural, and kind of we are doing our own thing,” she said acknowledging she was forced to crisscross the state to drum up attention and funds for her non-profit.