Republican, Democrat voters in Pennsylvania impressed, surprised by Harris’ debate performance

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Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump debated a vast range of issues in their first and only scheduled debate of the general election.

In a rare show of unity, Pennsylvania voters — both Democrats and Republicans — appear to believe that Harris did better than they had expected.

Greg Coleman, a Harris supporter, started the evening feeling nervous. He understood the heavy significance of the debate on Harris’ still-young campaign, but came away far more confident in his candidate.

“It went, in my opinion, very well,” he said. “I think Harris did a great job at commanding the topic but more importantly, she did a very good job at not being derailed,” he said at a Democratic watch party at McGillan’s tavern in Center City. Trump “is very good at throwing a competitor off base, and he did not succeed at that tonight,” he added.

Harris’ impressive performance, coming as a surprise, was a sentiment echoed by Trump supporter Tommy Feldman.

“Kamala definitely surprised me,” said Feldman, who watched the debate at a watch party in Philly for young Republicans at the Klimpton Hotel, just blocks from the debate site. “I thought she was going to do a lot worse than she did. I tended to see Trump ramble a lot so that didn’t shock me too much, but Kamala definitely exceeded what I expected of her.”

Jim Worthington, of Bucks County, who served as chair of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Republican National Convention, agreed, but argued that the perception of Harris’ performance was based on low expectations.

“I think people were thinking that there was going to be a knockout punch tonight by Trump on her, and because he didn’t get that, I think people are going to look at it and go, well, wow, that she did better than she did,” he told WHYY News.

Worthington added that he believes the moderators, ABC News’ John Muir and Linsey Davis, were biased against Trump and didn’t press Harris on issues as much as they seemed to with President Trump. For example, Trump was fact-checked on a statement he made that Democrats support “abortions” even after birth.

“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” Davis told Trump.

That exchange was met by uproarious cheers at McGillan’s tavern. By contrast, the quietest moment at the watch party came when Harris addressed the war in Gaza, explaining her position that Israel had a right to defend itself, “but it matters how.” The bar went eerily silent, every sound magnified with the stillness.

“Unfortunately, it’s going to have to be the lesser of two evils,” Lindsey McAnany, 24, who joined the Pennsylvania Young Democrats event with a friend, said after the main event. “I wish we had a candidate who would support the citizens of Palestine and call it what it is. It’s a genocide. But unfortunately, that’s not where we are today.”

Even though most Republicans WHYY News talked to appeared to believe Harris performed well, they are still assured their candidate will be victorious come November.

“I think that Trump is going to prevail, but I think that Kamala’s performance tonight puts up a tough challenge,” said Jennifer Knecht, who was also at the Klimpton Hotel.