PITTSBURGH, PA. - "A lawn chair would win 85% in the neighborhood," joked one local Democratic activist about the site of Kamala's rally at Carnegie Mellon University. The elite university sits in one of the most diverse and multicultural neighborhoods in Pittsburgh’s eclectic East End.
As Kamala's motorcade passed campus, over 400 CMU students, a large percentage of whom were Asian, gathered on the side of Forbes Avenue and let out hoots and hollers for Kamala.
In my nearly 40 years as an East End native, I have traveled across Forbes Avenue thousands of times and had never seen a scene like that. Across Pittsburgh, activists are also reporting unusual scenes.
"When we had an event on someone's porch, people picked up yard signs and signed up to canvass. And we had a couple hundred people who came to pick up a yard sign that's (on) someone's porch,” says local Democratic committeewoman Tracy Baton. "They didn't even drink the beer, we bought beer. They didn't even drink, they just went out and canvassed!"
Some of the enthusiasm is driven by the fact that Kamala Harris has spent more time in Pittsburgh than in any other city. She even stayed in Pittsburgh for the week leading up to the presidential debate, making it her “home away from home” on the campaign trail.
On Wednesday, Kamala Harris's love of Pittsburgh was again on display as she praised the city as a beacon of solidarity.
"You know, there is a saying that the best way to predict the future is to invent it, and that story is the story of the Steel City," said Harris to a round of thunderous applause. "The city that helped build the middle class, birth America's labor movement, empower the rise of manufacturing, and where Alan Newell and Herbert Simon launched the first AI research hub at Carnegie Mellon."
Kamala’s laser-like focus on Western PA has paid off.
"Prior to Kamala Harris being the nominee, it was a little bit doom and gloom, but people were like, “We're gonna do it,” but there was definitely hesitation," says local committeewoman Danielle Graham Robinson. "It was really hard to rally volunteers. I mean, actually impossible, like nobody was showing up to our events."
However, a dramatic sea change occurred after Kamala was tapped to be the nominee in late July.
"And then, literally, within, you know, a day of the decision for Biden to drop down, we saw an uptick in people wanting to volunteer with committee that weren't even committee members," says Danielle Graham Robinson.
Even seasoned Democratic veterans like Pennsylvania State Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, who had publicly rallied for Biden, contend that something big had changed.
"We are light years from where we were, nearly 6 or 7 weeks ago," says Costa. "I'm really excited about what's happening and she is generating a tremendous amount of folks, who wanna be involved. I mean, if you check out our party headquarters, we got 20-25 people a day working."
Now, Pittsburgh activists are going to neighboring, more rural counties, which in recent years have flipped back and forth between Democrats and Republicans.
"We've been reaching out to places like Johnstown, where Democrats don't come out to vote," says Tracy Baton, a local Democratic committeewoman. "We've been reaching out to places like Penn Hills, which has been a changing community, it doesn't have that turnout. And even in those places, we've been extremely well received, and Democrats are excited to get out."
In the more rural areas, they say that they are finding ways to break through to voters, particularly to women voters, whose husbands may be voting for Trump.
Pittsburgh activists say Kamala isn't the only reason for newfound enthusiasm. They say a lot of it is the result of change within the Party, which has seen a Congressman, Mayor, County Executive, and local Party Chair all replaced by younger, more progressive, often female activists within the last five years.
The changes in the Party's top leadership inspired changes throughout the decaying Party infrastructure in Pittsburgh.
"There was a handful of really intelligent folks that were like, “Okay, we're gonna run against all of these committee members,” and we turned over the committee basically,” says Graham Robinson.
As a result of these changes, activists were able to take the opportunity to plug people directly into organizing both in Pittsburgh and the surrounding rural Republican areas.
"What we're seeing now is people want to get involved, and they want to be part of what is happening here. But prior to the current leadership, the infrastructure for that just didn't exist," says Graham Robinson. "The Democratic committee was basically about, "Whose back can I scratch, who can scratch my back?" It was more transactional."
Activists say the vibe has changed completely in Pittsburgh.
"People feel a seriousness, a sense of purpose, but (with) an enthusiasm. I've said for years, we need to remind people that it's fun to be a Democrat," says Tracy Baton. "We're the fun people. And I think that that energy has carried from the convention to now, where we remember that we were Team Fun."
