Fireworks, Moonshine and Strategizing: Camping Out With the Rural Democrats Who May Swing Pennsylvania

Some of the most and least influential Democrats in Pennsylvania came together to organize around one goal: how to lose by less.

Demstock in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania

Louisiana Democratic Rep. Troy Carter spoke at Demstock as a Harris-Walz surrogate. Katherine Swartz/NOTUS

Vice President Kamala Harris won’t come close to winning in Jefferson County, a rural area tucked in the middle of Pennsylvania that has only voted for a Democratic presidential candidate once in its history.

Yet the hundreds of Democrats who descended on the county fairgrounds recently couldn’t feel more at home.

They gathered for Demstock, the annual part-therapy, part-campout, part-strategy session over two days at the end of August. County and regional leaders made connections and traded suggestions for getting out the vote in places where they say it’s not only isolating to be a Democrat but dangerous.