In Philadelphia’s Love Park, artist and illustrator Hawk Krall is putting the final touches to a mural. “PHILLY WILL DECIDE”, it says in lettering matching that used by the famous local baseball team.
With huge swathes of America reliably Republican red or indelibly Democrat blue, who becomes the next US President comes down to how voters cast their ballots in a tiny handful of ‘swing’ states.
Philadelphia is the biggest city in Pennsylvania, the most swing of all.
“In 2020, it came down to just a handful of votes cast in there,” Hawk, 46, says, pointing up at the ornate City Hall building. “And here we are again.”
In 2016, Trump won the state by just 0.72%. In 2020, Biden reclaimed the state for the Democrats, by 1.17%. As the next election approaches in just 26 days, the result again stands on a knife-edge.
Over the last few days, we have been knocking on doors across the state, from the fly-tipped streets of Philly’s Strawberry Mansion to the white clapperboard houses of Chester County. On our journey, we find swing streets and even swing households.
The election is testing old friendships. Lindsay Patterson, 70, – a former local President of the United Steelworkers, who led the union’s Philadelphia campaign for Barack Obama – says Joe Biden is the most pro-union President the US has ever had. He is voting Democrat, but his friend has a wildly different view.
“I was born a Democrat, but I’ll probably die a Republican,” Marlon, 71, says. “And I’ve been in the union 51 years.”
Marlon – who asked us to change his name – repeats a number of conspiracy theories around Covid, immigration, and empty warehouses. But he says it is Trump’s “balls” Americans admire.
“Trump is about transparency. If you say you’re going to do it, do it. Trump didn’t say it nicely, he wasn’t polite, but he got it done. Then we had the last four years of Biden. Any lower and we’re going to be eating out of a garbage can.”
In Strawberry Mansion, an area with high crime rates, we feel the anger of Black voters who feel taken for granted by the Democrats.
“People of your skin colour only come here when you want us to vote,” a woman yells at us. “Where are you the rest of the year? I’m 81. I’m voting for nobody. All the illegal migrants coming in, you’re housing them in our neighbourhoods. We don’t have enough ourselves. You’re letting convicted criminals in.”
An elderly man on the next street offers us a glass of water and tells us we should take care in the neighbourhood. “This is not democracy,” he says. “Trump is a convicted felon, the whole thing is a lie. It’s not an election, it’s a misdirection. There’s no point voting any more.”
Out in Chester County, the maple trees are slowly turning red, but local Democrat candidate, Christian Luna, is hoping to turn the district blue. Aged 27, he is the son of Mexican immigrants.
“Voters in Chester County have the chance to break two barriers this election,” he says. “Kamala Harris could be our first black woman President. And voters here have the chance to elect their first Mexican-American representative.”
Like many Mexican Americans locally, he worked on nearby mushroom farms as he saved to put himself through college. He is encouraging the local Latino community to get out and vote. Christian says: “I’m young, but there is a lot at stake and my community deserves better. It’s time to flip this seat Democrat.”
Rob Joseph, a US veteran, is going to door-to-door for the Democrats in an affluent enclave of white clapboard houses. At the top of a cul-de-sac a woman in her 60s, peers out of the door.
“We’re all Democrat here,” she says. Rob consults his polling app, which suggests her husband is a Republican voter. “All Democrat?” he checks.
“All Democrat,” she nods. “My husband usually votes Republican but not this time. It’s gone too far. What happened on January 6 was unforgivable. We need to step back from the extremes.
Rob says: “I’m like you. I want my country back.”
Other parts of rural America are gearing up to vote Harris. Brad Bauman, one of the founders of ‘White Dudes for Harris’ shows us a video of a cowboy-hat-wearing ‘dude’ called Vic Meyers, who turns out to be as blue as his denim shirt.
“I’m a 56-year-old rural, gun-owning white dude, and I’m voting Harris,” he says. “I’m expected to vote for Donald Trump. I’m expected to forget about my wife and daughter, my granddaughters and their healthcare rights when I vote. The thing is… they mean the world to me.”
At a car park on the edge of the city, we join a ‘mass canvas’ of voters. Jimmy Williams Jr, President of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, rallies the troops.
“Let’s get out the vote today, for all the people whose votes elsewhere in the country don’t count,” he tells over 100 volunteers. “Let’s vote for every single one of them.”
In reality, most unions are split 50:50 for Trump and Harris. Trump’s appeal cuts across the usual voting patterns. Like all populists, he means different things to different people.
All over we meet people like Marlon the union man, who says he is voting Trump because “your head can tell you something – but it’s your heart that counts”.
There is artwork all over Philly, but two standout statues. One is a cast of Rodin’s The Thinker, and the other is a bronze sculpture of Rocky, showing the fictional boxer’s iconic run up the steps of the Museum of Modern Art.
In this battle between head and heart, thinker and fighter, the sunny October weekend crowds are gathered at Rocky.
Democrat strategists we meet in Wilmington, Delaware tell us the things that will decide the election. Reproductive rights, which are under attack from Trump. Rural voters who the Democrats are targeting more effectively this time. And “older black women”, who we learn have been the unsung backbone of the party.
Back in Strawberry Mansion, an elderly Black woman holds a Democrat leaflet through a crack in her security gate. She stabs her finger at Kamala Harris, and her smiles broadly. “I’m voting for her,” she says. “I’m 92. I waited a long time.”
If the first Black woman President is elected, it will be down to a combination of women like her struggling to the polling booths and the women Republicans who can no longer stomach Trump.
Across the city, the famous, cracked Liberty Bell stands for American freedom. Once again, Pennsylvania stands on the front line of the battle for democracy and progress. It just depends on what kind of freedom America wants.
