FEATURE
PHILADELPHIA — In the U.S. presidential debate, former president Donald Trump twice refused to directly answer a question about whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war started by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Vice President Kamala Harris criticized Trump’s stance on the invasion and Putin, claiming a Trump presidency would have been a disaster for the U.S. ally, and eventually Eastern Europe. She said if Russia succeeds, Poland will be the next country to be invaded.
“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 in one of her harder-hitting lines of the evening.
“It’s not often that Polish Americans — specifically those in Pennsylvania, where 5% of people say they have Polish ancestry — get a shout-out on the national debate stage, but the moment showed that Harris appeared to have done her homework in the hope of grabbing the attention of more than 700,000 Polish Americans in the commonwealth, a group that is consistently civically engaged,” said the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Michael Blichasz, president of the Polish American Cultural Center in Philadelphia, said he was “pleased” to hear Harris mention Polish American Pennsylvanians, a historically reliable voting bloc for Democrats, though Republicans have also lobbied for their votes.
Back in 2012, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney attempted to appeal to Polish American voters in part by making a visit to Poland.
Polish Americans are “not a community that gets a lot of publicity,” Blichasz said. “However, the people in politics know that the Polish people come out and vote. They know that because they contact us on a regular basis to urge people to come out and vote.”
Polish Americans are dependable voters because of their beliefs in the “independence” offered in the United States, Blichasz said.
“They believe in the United States of America as one of the great places that has welcomed them for centuries, not just recently,” Blichasz said.
During his recent visit to the American Częstochowa, a PolAm Catholic Shrine in Doylestown, Pa., Polish President Andrzej Duda urged Polish Americans to vote in this year’s U.S. presidential election. He emphasized that by making their voice heard, they can ensure continued U.S. support for Poland.
Duda had been invited to American Częstochowa to unveil a new memorial honoring the Solidarity trade-union movement, which had fought to overthrow Poland’s Soviet-imposed communist regime.
In an move to win Polish American votes, Trump planned to meet Duda at the unveiling ceremony. His team, citing security concerns, cancelled the visit.
Doylestown, about an hour north of Philadelphia, is in Bucks County, a swing district in a state that could decide who wins the presidency. Trump lost Bucks County to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, but both races were close.
Polonia May Once Again Hold Key to Oval Office
l. to r.: Harris, Duda, Trump.
Harris said Trump would abandon Ukraine if elected, making it easier for Putin to invade neighboring Poland; while visiting American Częstochowa in Doylestown, Duda urged Polish Americans to vote in the election; Trump hoped to win Polish American votes by meeting with Duda at ceremony in Eastern Pennsylvania county.
