The message was clear and consistent and was repeated again and again Saturday afternoon in the Geigle Complex at Reading High School.
There are only 16 days left until Election Day. That means it’s time to dig in and give it a final push.
About 200 Berks County residents gathered at the Geigle on Saturday to hear U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speak about what she described as the importance of electing Democrats on the ballot and the effort it will take to make that happen.
Ocasio-Cortez, whose 14th Congressional District in New York includes parts of Queens and the Bronx, spoke about the importance of working with fellow Democrats to pass legislation that she believes puts people first. She urged attendees to not only go out and vote, but to ensure others in their community vote as well.
“I want to ask something from all of you here today because we are not organizing downwards, we are organizing upwards,” she said. “We need to take our families to the polls, we need to take our friends to the polls and let them know why voting is important.
“Because not voting is a vote,” she continued. “Not voting is a choice – it’s an active choice. And when we leave ourselves out of the equation, we choose to let someone else decide our future.”
The importance of reading
Ocasio-Cortez talked about how a city like Reading, located in one of the country’s key battleground states, will play a key role in determining whether former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris ends up in the White House.
“Reading will decide this election,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez said people in the political world often look at a city like Reading, which has a history of low voter turnout, and think it’s not worth spending time there campaigning.
“I feel the opposite, I feel like people don’t vote because we don’t come to these places,” she said. “So that’s why I’m here.”
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez takes videos of the Reading High cheerleaders backstage as they perform for the Reading and Berks Democrats at the Geigle on Saturday. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
Ocasio-Cortez said she has built her career on reaching people who feel forgotten by the political system and who in turn choose not to participate in it. When she first ran for office in 2018, she said she couldn’t win by winning over traditional voters, but by activating new voters.
“We were working with a broad coalition of people who, as usual, were tired of politics,” she said. “And we decided to do something that everyone says you shouldn’t do: we talked to people who didn’t vote.
“We’ve talked to people who felt like the system doesn’t care about them, so they don’t care,” she added. “We talked to all kinds of people, and what happened on Election Day was that voter turnout increased by 65%.”
Ocasio-Cortez said she believes a similar situation could happen in Reading.
“What I often say is that some of the biggest voters in this election are not from red to blue, but from bench to booth,” she said.
Pennsylvania connection
Ocasio-Cortez is somewhat familiar with reading. She told the crowd Saturday that when her grandfather first moved to the U.S. mainland from Puerto Rico, he settled in nearby Pottstown.
She lived in the Bronx and said she spent her childhood driving past Reading, commuting between New York and Pottstown.
The city is important to her, Ocasio-Cortez said. And it’s also a key part of Harris’ path to winning the presidency — which would be hugely important for communities like those in Reading.
“Kamala Harris will be the first female president of the United States,” she said. “She is the daughter of immigrants, she is a black woman who will be a powerful leader for this country and she comes from a working class background.
“But as we know, if you come from the working class you have to work twice as hard to reach half that,” she added. “As a woman you have to work twice as hard to achieve half that. If you are a black woman, if you come from an immigrant family, you work four times as hard.”
And she said that’s true during this final part of the campaign as well.
“We know the playing field is not level,” the congressman said. “We know that’s true, but we also know it’s possible. She has to work, and we have to work a hundred times as hard to get this out.”
Ocasio-Cortez said a lot of work is needed not only to ensure Harris becomes president, but also to elect Democrats up and down the aisle so her agenda can be successful.
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez poses for a selfie with an attendee at a meeting of Reading and Berks Democrats on Saturday at the Geigle. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
Houlahan speaks
One of these candidates is U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, who organized Ocasio-Cortez’s visit to Reading High Saturday.
Houlahan, a Chester County Democrat who was first elected to Congress in 2018, will face Republican Neil Young in the general election. The two are competing in the 6th Congressional District, which covers parts of Chester and Berks counties, including Reading.
She encouraged the audience to stay focused during the last few crucial weeks of the campaign.
“Ignore the polls, ignore the experts, ignore the haters, ignore all the people trying to make your life miserable. Make sure you continue what you have been doing for the past few months,” she said.
Houlahan echoed Ocasio-Cortez’s sentiment on the importance of Harris’ election, saying the alternative would be disastrous.
“If we re-elect the former president, he has — and believe him — he has promised mass deportations,” she said, referring to comments Trump made during the campaign. “He has promised – and believe him – to turn the army against his enemies. He says a solution to the crime is a one-day purge.”
Houlahan said Trump has played a role in taking away women’s bodily autonomy, pointing to his appointment of Supreme Court justices who overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, which established a constitutional right to abortion. She said he has called men and women in uniform “suckers” and “losers” and praised businessman Elon Musk for firing employees.
“So this is what’s at stake,” she said. “Please understand what the stakes are.”
Before Houlahan took the stage, several other Democratic elected officials addressed the crowd. That included Reading Mayor Eddie Moran; U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean of Montgomery County, who represents parts of Berks in the 4th Congressional District, includes Secretary of State Judy Schwank, State Rep. Manny Guzman and State Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz.
A group of Berks County Democrats will welcome U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the Geigle Complex at Reading High School on Saturday. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
