Ineffective planning, lack of connections has Dems on edge in 'key' battleground: report

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Fears are allegedly mounting within the Democratic Party that Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is failing to effectively connect with voters in Pennsylvania – the battleground state that will likely determine the outcome of the election – a report claimed. 

Alleged poor campaign management and staffers lacking relationships with Democratic political leaders in the Keystone State are allegedly rocking the campaign, according to Politico. The outlet reported that Democrats are worried that the campaign’s state manager lacks an understanding of Philadelphia, the state’s largest city, while campaign staffers have allegedly not invited local Democratic politicians to events in the state, and have not effectively deployed surrogates across the state. 

Politico reported that it spoke with 20 Democratic politicians, allies, and party leaders for the story, who reported they are restless over Harris’ campaigning efforts. 

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Politico reported that some Pennsylvania Democrats are restless over Vice President Harris’ campaigning efforts. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

One union leader in the state, Ryan Boyer, pointed to the Harris campaign’s Pennsylvania manager, Nikki Lu, as part of the issue allegedly affecting the campaign in the battleground state. 

"I have concerns about Nikki Lu," Boyer, who serves as business manager for the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, told the outlet. "I don’t think she understands Philadelphia."

"We need young African American men to come home. We need African American women... to come out in record numbers, and disaffected African Americans," he added. "We have surrogates in this area that have tremendous credibility in our communities. And Nikki Lu was slow to get to them."

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Lu is a native of Pittsburgh, which sits on the western side of the massive state, and about 300 miles away from Philadelphia. The campaign is focused on amplifying voter turnout in both the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas, the outlet reported. 

Vice President Kamala Harris during the debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

During separate closed door meetings last month in Philadelphia, Latino and Black Democratic leaders sounded the alarm about their concerns, including requesting they have a greater presence at events and that the campaign acquire a "more sophisticated understanding" of how to engage with diverse voting demographics, according to five people who attended the meetings. 

"I feel like we’re going to win here, but we’re going to win it in spite of the Harris state campaign," a Democratic elected official in Pennsylvania who spoke to Politico under the condition of anonymity. "Pennsylvania is such a mess, and it’s incredibly frustrating."

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The Harris campaign told Politico that they have stronger outreach to minority voters in the state compared to Trump’s camp, but did not address the outlet’s question regarding alleged concerns that Lu lacks an understanding of Philadelphia.  

"Our campaign is running the largest and most sophisticated operation in Pennsylvania history," Harris’ national campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodriguez said in comment to Fox News Digital on Wednesday. "While Trump’s team still refuses to tell reporters how few staff they have in the state, we have 50 coordinated offices and nearly 400 staff on the ground," she said. 

"While the Trump campaign closed its ‘minority outreach offices,’ we invested in targeted advertising to Black and Latino voters starting in August of 2023 and have now spent more than any previous presidential campaign on outreach to these communities. The Vice President is also campaigning aggressively in Pennsylvania - spending 1 out of 3 days in the state in September," 

The campaign also directed Fox News Digital to a recent New York Times story detailing reported GOP divisions in the state’s northwestern area. 

Trump campaign spokesperson Kush Desai told Politico that the Trump campaign has more than two dozen offices in the state. 

"There’s no part of the commonwealth that we’re ignoring," he said. 

Fox News Digital spoke with Salvatore J. Panto Jr., the longtime Democratic mayor of Easton, which is located near Allentown and about 75 miles north of Philadelphia, who said, "Democrats are being out-messaged by the Republicans."

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"In the one commercial where Kamala Harris is saying, 'Well, that's Bidenomics,' I think that is hurting this because I think the Trump campaign has done a much better job of saying, ‘Things are really bad,’" Panto said during a Monday interview with Fox News Digital.

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Former President Trump gestures at a campaign rally at the Findlay Toyota Arena on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in Prescott Valley, Arizona. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

"I get more of that on the Stephen Colbert show at night than I do from the Kamala Harris campaign. I think she should be pointing out that his 2025 plan is much different than her plan. And she's not afraid to talk about her plan. He hasn't said 'boo' about his."

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Political eyes are locked on Pennsylvania yet again this election cycle, as Keystone State voters are championed as the ones who will likely determine the outcome of the federal election. Trump narrowly won the state in 2016 when he successfully campaigned against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but lost the state in 2020 against President Biden. 

Fox News Digital's Charles Creitz contributed to this report.