Diana Vahabzadeh had never voted Democratic in her life, until Barack Obama’s first campaign in 2008. “I’ve loved him for years,” she confides, while waiting to see the first black president of the United States on Thursday. United States came to support Kamala Harris in the very courted Pennsylvania.
It is, said this 63-year-old woman, “a good opportunity to see him and also to support the Democratic ticket,” less than a month before the presidential election against Republican Donald Trump.
In Pittsburgh, one of the large cities of this key eastern state, Barack Obama, icon of the Democrats since his two terms from 2009 to 2017, is headlining a meeting held in the final stretch of a particularly tense and tight campaign.
Around the University of Pittsburgh, where the big rally is taking place, the Democrat’s fans are growing impatient in a superstar pre-concert atmosphere.
Because his words still have “a lot of weight”, argues Diana Vahabzadeh.
Retired schoolteacher Valerie Brown agrees. “I like to see and hear her way of expressing herself well, stimulating other people who might still be reluctant” to vote for Kamala Harris, she explains.
After a honeymoon in the polls and the media at the start of her campaign, the vice-president remains neck and neck with Donald Trump, the former president relying on a particularly motivated electoral base.
“We will not go back”
The two candidates traveled to key states such as Pennsylvania where, due to a particular American electoral system, the November 5 vote will take place.
Lisa Harris, a friend of Valerie Brown, also a retired teacher, believes that the Democratic campaign offers a vision of the future unlike the Republicans who, according to her, only offer a dark return to the past, conservative and hostile to diversity.
“We will not go back,” thunders this 57-year-old black woman, taking up one of Kamala Harris’ campaign refrains. “People died so that we had the right to vote, so that we had the right to have control over our body, our mind and our soul,” she insists.
Even for the younger generation, the arrival of Barack Obama does not go unnoticed. Like Tia Douglas standing in line to see a former president elected the first time when she herself wasn’t old enough to vote.
“It’s super historic that Obama, our first president of color, is campaigning again for our first woman of color vice-president,” rejoices the 20-year-old, wearing Kamala Harris’ now famous campaign cap. , military camouflage color.
“Something really big”
“Seeing them join forces for the good of all is really great,” continues Tia Douglas. “I grew up with Obama as president, but we’re not really part of that political history, I was too young.”
But, she said, “it’s cool to see him return to the field” and dub Kamala Harris as his political successor. So “cool” that she waited for hours for the Democratic star to arrive in an old university gymnasium where, on posters, the essential slogan of her campaign “Yes We Can” (“Yes, we can”) “do”) turned into “Yes She Can”.
For Julia Palchikoff, growing up under the Trump presidency, from 2017 to 2021, made her appreciate Barack Obama even more.
“Being in a key state during an election like this is a historic moment, and I feel like I have to participate in it,” confides this 20-year-old journalism student.
“When I heard Obama was coming here, I said to myself that I loved him when I was a kid. And Kamala, honestly, I feel like we’re on the verge of something really big,” she hopes. “I’m very happy to be here.”