PITTSBURGH—Billed as a kickoff bus tour on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, instead spent Aug. 18 in Beaver County in tightly controlled stops before heading to Chicago.
Harris held a short rally at a private airport hangar surrounded by supporters—mostly members of local unions who were bused in for the event—before the vice president went to two retail stops and visited a phone bank before finishing the day at a local Sheetz gas station.
Beaver County, west of Allegheny County and adjacent to the airport, was once a powerful component of the Democratic Party, filled with union families who worked at the steel mills in Aliquippa and Ambridge. As the Democratic Party shifted left, the voters moved toward the Republican Party. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump won the…
