Voters traveled from near and far to see former first lady Michelle Obama stump for Harris in the Philadelphia suburbs tonight, and some are regulars at campaign events in the battleground states.
The event in Montgomery County is Stacey Hanley and John Kupetz’ third in the last two weeks alone, the couple told NBC News.
The two already voted for Harris by mail in the swing state, he said — but not before they attended a Trump rally.
“Last week, we were at a Kamala Harris event in Philadelphia and at the [Donald] Trump rally up in State College,” Kupetz told NBC News.
“We wanted to go see what it was going to be like for ourselves,” said Hanley. “We watch a lot of news, and we wanted to see if what they’re saying is true. You know, Kamala did say, ‘Go see a Trump rally.’ We did.”
During the only presidential debate in September, Harris said, “I invite you to attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies. … The one thing you will not hear him talk about is you. You will not hear him talk about your needs, your dreams and your desires.”
Hanley, a life-long registered independent, took her seriously.
“Most of my family is very Republican, all for Trump, and I want to be able to tell them that I actually saw both sides, and I’ve made my decision based on all of the information I could take in, not just a one-sided point of view. And I still stand with Kamala,” she said.
The couple said despite “dressing the part” to fit in, the rally felt “quiet” with little interaction among attendees. Hanley said she wore “a red t-shirt” and some “red white and blue stuff because she was going “into enemy territories.”
“There was a lot of people when we first walked in, and it actually made us nervous, going, ‘Oh my gosh, all these people here for him,’” Hanley observed, noting that Trump was late to the rally and many supporters had left by the time he began his speech.
“But seeing the exodus that happened, that we’ve been seeing on TV, and now we know as factual, gave me a little bit of hope that a lot of people were there for the same reason we were to see it for themselves,” she said.
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