Pennsylvania voters: Harris kept the focus on Trump

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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.