Streets of Philadelphia

Today’s notice: Inside the Philadelphia GOTV machine, the inside scoop on what Dems say worked in Harris’ Ellipse speech, the inside baseball on the House Natural Resources Committee and a look at the movement readying for an American civil war.

The Search for the Philly Special

If the giant statue of a naked Donald Trump that popped up in Philadelphia is any indication, the city is definitely feeling something about this election. The question is how much enthusiasm is there for Kamala Harris.

To hear Philadelphia Democratic City Committee Chair Bob Brady tell it, there’s plenty. That’s saying something from Brady, a former congressman and Joe Biden’s close personal friend. Brady has chaired the committee since Ronald Reagan was in office.

The Harris machine’s Pennsylvania operation has come under some serious scrutiny. Politico detailed consternation from state Dems that the campaign didn’t have relationships with key party people in Philly and its suburbs and wasn’t doing enough to turn out voters of color.

Asked about the article, Brady said he recently “screamed” at the Harris camp but said in the last two weeks, things have “come around.”

“They’re starting to work with us. We got all the signs we needed,” he said.

One positive indicator for Harris that a party official flagged to NOTUS: Mail-in ballots are being returned at high rates in wards with many Black voters — especially in wards with higher educational attainment. The numbers are outpacing rates from previous elections, this official said.

“Bad things happen in Philadelphia,” Brady said, referencing an infamous Trump insult. “Bad things for him.”

That doesn’t mean there isn’t some anxiety. For all the excitement, there’s also an acute awareness of the stakes.

“Philadelphia is the most important county in the most important state in the most important election of our lifetimes,” Pennsylvania Democrats Political Director John Brady — no relation to Bob — told NOTUS.

—Riley Rogerson, reporting from Philadelphia | Read more here.

Some Signs Harris’ Closing Economic Message Is Resonating

We’ve obtained a Doppler memo from the Harris-supporting Future Forward super PAC suggesting the lines in the VP’s Ellipse speech where she highlighted Trump’s record on tax cuts were among the most meaningful to undecided voters. (Doppler memos are distributed to Democratic allies to help them take advantage of Future Forward testing to create maximum impact in surrogate activities like posting.)

Harris’ line that Trump “would deliver tax cuts to his billionaire donors” scored as high as the one about her belief “in the fundamental freedom of Americans to make decisions about their own bodies,” according to the memo. They were tied at the top of the most persuasive lines from the speech in FF PAC testing.

Future Forward has spent a ton of money on economic contrast ads in the final weeks of the campaign, including several featuring Republicans who say they stopped supporting Trump because of his economic plans. This economic contrast messaging is a huge difference between how Democrats closed out the 2016 race against Trump and how they’re doing it this time.

—Evan McMorris-Santoro

Front Page

• GOP Operatives Are Concerned the Puerto Rico Comments Could Ruin Advances With Minorities: “Guilty by association,” one said.
• Donald Trump Makes His Pitch to Latino Voters — In a State That’s Not in Play: Trump goes to New Mexico.
• Democrats Are Prepping a ‘War Room’ Should the Election Results Be Questioned: A liberal coalition says it has $10 million to spend if Republicans deny the election results.
• Scandals Are Footnotes in Two Tight New York House Races: Allegations surrounding Anthony D’Esposito and Mike Lawler aren’t moving the needle.

These Trump Supporters Are Girding Themselves for Civil War

Tennessee Pastor Greg Locke has more than 2 million followers on Facebook alone. He’s met with Trump in person alongside other pastors. And he’s putting fifty-fifty odds on a civil war if Harris wins.

“If you show up and try to impede on our First Amendment right, we’ll meet you at the door with our Second Amendment right,” Locke told NOTUS’ Haley Byrd Wilt. “That’s what the Bible says.”

The pastor then corrected himself, adding, “the Constitution says.”

Locke has told his parishioners at Global Vision Bible Church they would be “public enemy number one” if Trump lost. His rhetoric reflects a growing belief among Trump’s far-right Christian followers that a Democratic victory will bring a lot of violence — or possibly the end of America.

Read more from Haley here.

Congressional Drama Is One of Our Most Precious Natural Resources

Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who has led Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee for nearly a decade, has been out of Washington for most of the year after being diagnosed with lung cancer. In a letter to colleagues earlier this month obtained by NOTUS, he said he’s getting better and is “eager to finish the job.”

Some Democrats on the committee, though, aren’t eager for him to finish it. Their main issue is his lack of communication with members over the last year.

“Even his staff, if they have to talk to him, they have to go through his wife’s cell phone,” one Democrat on the committee said. “It’s like a Woodrow Wilson situation.”

Read more here.

Not Us

We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by … not us.

• The Ex-Californians Who Hate Kamala Harris — And Could Flip Nevada by Calder McHugh at Politico
• Facebook Took More Than $1 Million for Ads Sowing Election Lies by Emily Baker-White at Forbes
• There’s a Postcard Stamp Shortage in NYC — And Kamala Harris Is the Reason Why by Rachel Kahn at The City
• A Democratic senate candidate in Arizona tries to win over Native American voters by Ben Giles at NPR
• Millions of Movers Reveal American Polarization in Action by Ronda Kaysen and Ethan Singer at The New York Times

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