In September’s televised
debate
between the two candidates, Harris made a much-publicized shout-out to Polish-American voters.
“Why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch?” Harris said as the two traded barbs over the war in Ukraine and relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Politico suggested in an article on Tuesday, however, that Harris’s appeal to Poles may have fallen on stony ground.
The ‘Polonia’—the name given to Americans of Polish descent—may prove decisive in swing states during November’s presidential election, particularly in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
“Since the Democrats took Pennsylvania by only 80,000 votes in 2020 — Harris’ play to Polish patriotism had a clear-cut electoral logic,” the news service wrote.
Interviews with Pennsylvania’s Polonia told a different story, however, with Polish Americans interviewed by Politico saying they cared more about domestic issues.
“We’re giving billions of dollars to Ukraine,” one voter said. “What about our people first?”
The news service reported that the Democrats had pinned high hopes on a visit to the state last month by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but that that ploy may also have done more harm than good.
Video footage of Zelenskyy signing munitions at a
Pennsylvania factory drew the ire of some local Polonia.
“It made a lot of people mad locally,” Politico quoted one local resident as saying. “Because you’re signing bombs that could potentially kill innocent people. On either the Russia or Ukraine side. There’s innocent on both sides.”
It’s the economy, stupid
Ending the war in Ukraine is seen by many potential voters in the Polish community as being a priority, even if it means doing a deal with the Kremlin and Ukraine ceding territory, Politico reported. Here, the Republican candidate may have a trump card.
“There are people at this table who are strong Trump supporters because we want this war to end,” another interviewee told the news site.
But the key issue seems to be the domestic economy rather than “a war 5,000 miles away” Politico wrote.
“I don’t care,” a first-generation Polish woman told Politico, referring to Harris’
warnings over Poland. “I don’t live there anymore. I care about here. People can’t afford groceries.”
Such sentiment echoes Trump’s “America first” rhetoric and may prove valuable for the Republican nominee.
A high proportion of Polish-American voters backed
Trump in 2016 though the tide turned against him in 2020. How the key Polish-American percentile will vote in November may decide who takes the Oval Office.
