Harris presses for Black, Latino votes in Philadelphia

Kamala Harris spent Sunday with a singular focus: Philadelphia.

The decision to devote the entire day to Pennsylvania’s largest city, nine days before Election Day, underscored the heavily Democratic city’s importance to the vice president — and also a central challenge facing her campaign: If she doesn’t drive turnout among Black and Latino voters there, she’ll lose the state and her best path to the White House.

Philadelphia is nearly 40 percent Black and 15 percent Hispanic. President Joe Biden won 81 percent of the vote there in 2020, and at over 10 percent of the statewide vote, it’s a critical piece of the Blue Wall Harris is scrambling to maintain to beat Donald Trump.

But recent polling warns of a fraying Democratic coalition, including Trump cutting into Harris’ margins among Black and Latino men — a trend that is alarming Democrats in Pennsylvania and across the country who fear it could cost them the White House.