ALLENTOWN — A tight crowd gathered around a blue bus and listened intently as Hadley Duvall, an abortion rights advocate and supporter of Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, recounted how her stepfather raped her and left her pregnant when she was 12.
Duvall eventually had a miscarriage, but said that under new abortion laws in her home state of Kentucky, she would have been forced to carry the pregnancy to term.
Aleyda Garcia, 53, held a Harris campaign sign in Spanish and was in tears. Her son, Brandon Rodriguez, 18, wiped a drop from his mother’s cheek. It was his first time voting and he had yet to decide between Harris, a Democrat, and Republican Donald Trump.
Duvall's story, part of Harris' campaign's “Reproductive Freedom” bus tour, got Garcia thinking about her granddaughters.
“You never know when something like this can happen,” Garcia said. “I want them to have the choice.”
Reuters Voters followed the bus tour for two days in Pennsylvania. Most of those who came supported Harris, while a few, like Rodriguez, came to learn more about her. Voters like him form the small group that could tip the balance in the Nov. 5 election.
Democrats see abortion rights as a popular issue that Harris can use against Trump, a Republican who while president appointed three Supreme Court justices who in 2022 helped overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide.
TO Reuters/Ipsos A poll conducted Aug. 21-28 found that a majority of voters, including 34 percent of Republicans, want the next president to protect or increase access to abortion.
Trump says he supports abortion rights in cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is in danger, but says each state should decide for itself and that some do not allow exceptions. He denies claims by Democrats that he plans to enact a law banning abortion nationwide.
The bus will make at least 50 stops, starting with a few loops around Trump's home in West Palm Beach, Florida. It will pass through the seven battleground states expected to decide the election. The goal is to take the fight to voters in small towns and neighborhoods that the big rallies won't reach.
Spokespeople hop on and off the bus, including Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, actors, influencers, local radio hosts, podcasters and senators. Stops include universities, health centers and breweries in places like Allentown, population 126,000.
“You can reach communities that aren't as easily reached by directors traveling around,” said Morgan Mohr, a senior campaign adviser for reproductive rights, who traveled by bus through the battleground states of Florida, Georgia and North Carolina before arriving in Pennsylvania.
Harris has promised to restore Roe's protections, though to do so she will likely need a Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress — something unlikely in the 2024 election.
In Allentown, a left-leaning city where more than 50 percent of the population is Latino, the campaign handed out empanadas to appeal to a demographic with which Democrats have been losing ground in recent years.
Garcia, a native of Honduras and a Democratic voter since she became a citizen, heard about the event that morning on a local Spanish-language radio station. One of the featured speakers was radio host Victor Martinez, whose first political endorsement in a three-decade career was for Harris.
Garcia said she brought her son, who works at an amusement park, so he could listen to the campaign and make an informed voting decision.
“I think I'll probably vote for Harris,” Rodriguez said after the show. He said he still found Trump funny, but he didn't want him to be president again.
