Pittsfield — Vice President Kamala Harris’s private fundraiser at the Colonial Theater on Saturday, July 27, was a spectacle, both on the outside of the theater and inside the event itself. While the event was in the works for weeks, the location of the event itself was announced the day before it took place.
The fundraising event was announced before President Joseph Biden officially dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday, July 21. In the past week, Harris has received enough support from Democratic delegates to make her party’s presumptive nominee. According to organizers of the July 27 event, the Colonial Theater fundraiser brought in over $1.4 million for the Harris campaign, raising more funds than its original goal of $400,000. Before the event started, security was tight around the theater. A Secret Service officer stopped this journalist from photographing directly in front of the theater on South Street.
Meanwhile, Reverend Mike Denton, Pastor of the United Church of Christ, observed what was happening as the vice president was coming to the city. The church is across the street from the theater. “I think it’s an exciting day for Pittsfield to be able to have the vice president stop by,” Denton said. “I think anytime that a city our size gets some national attention, that’s good. If I had a chance to talk to her, I would tell her to keep a couple of things in mind, including the crises that are happening everywhere as far as housing, homelessness, and hunger. I hope she can make the world a more peaceful place. We have a food pantry in this church that is serving between 1,300 to 1,800 households a week, and those numbers have gone up from 750 last fall. We are seeing a lot of people coming in because they cannot afford housing anymore.”
Over at the First Church of Christ in Pittsfield, members of the Christ Memorial Church, including Carol Ivery and Nicole Payne, were handing out free lunches. “I am open to any political viewpoint, but I am the type of person who prays about my political viewpoint,” Ivery said. “I am blessed that she’s here. We would be blessed if the opponent came here so people could get an honest opinion from both of them.”
“I am absolutely elated that she put Pittsfield on the map,” Payne said. “Just to have her coming through is important. We definitely need to recognize the importance of utilizing our voices and getting out to vote.”
“If I had a chance to speak to her, I would say God bless her, and I would pray that there will be no negativity coming because there’s so much negativity and backstabbing coming from this campaign,” Ivery added. “We need to talk about the topics and not tear people down.”
Right before the event at the theater, more people started to show up across the street, including Michael Wise from the Berkshire Democratic Brigade.
“I think Vice President Harris coming to the Berkshires is a sign that she understands where she needs to go to be sure people know who she is,” Wise said. “If I had a chance to talk to her, I’d say thank you for stepping up and being the face of the Democratic party.”
While there were plenty of supporters of Vice President Harris outside of the theater, there were also supporters of the other presidential candidates. A handful of supporters for former President Donald Trump carried a banner up and down South Street. Glenn Tamir, the Berkshire County campaign coordinator for the Kennedy-Shanahan Campaign, carried a banner supporting Kennedy. “I do think it’s great that the vice president is coming to the Berkshires because western Massachusetts is an important part of the state,” Tamir said. “There are some tremendous ecological and environmental issues, which is one of the reasons why I’m supporting Kennedy. If I had a chance to speak to the vice president, I would ask her why she is supporting the war in Ukraine. Why are you not doing everything you can to end it, and why did you allow it to happen in the first place when it was unnecessary?”Â
Over at Park Square, not too far away from the theater, the groups Berkshire Democratic Socialists of America and the Anti-Imperialist Society held a protest against both President Biden and Vice President Harris. As quoted in their press release, the groups were protesting “the Democratic Party and the Biden administration’s active, unconditional support for Israel’s war crimes and genocide in Gaza.”
“Democrats, and the Biden Administration, are complicit in the genocide in Gaza,” Pittsfield resident and spokesperson for both groups Jez Laurin said. “As Harris is coming to campaign here, we believe that Harris is complicit, that the whole Biden administration is complicit in the genocide in Gaza, and we wanted to protest for that and advocate for a cease, a ceasefire and end to the occupation in Gaza. We don’t agree with her position on Gaza, Palestine, and Israel. We don’t appreciate that she continues to take funds from AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee), and that she continues to fund the genocide in Gaza.”Â
While other media outlets were allowed inside the Colonial Theatre for the event, The Berkshire Edge was not allowed. The Berkshire Edge contacted local campaign representatives and organizers of the event but did not hear back from them. However, Berkshire Edge columnist Peter Most was one of the attendees of the event and he took photographs and recorded Vice President Harris’s speech.
“In this election, I do believe that each one of us faces a question,” Vice President Harris told the audience. “That question being: What kind of country do we want to live in? Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion, and rule of law? Or do we want to live in a country of chaos, fear, and hate? The beauty of our democracy is that each one of us has the power to answer that question. The power is with the people. On November 5, let us be clear-eyed. We have a fight ahead of us. We are the underdogs in this race. But this is a people power campaign, and we have momentum.”
Vice President Harris took a few digs at her Republican competition during her speech.
“You may have noticed, Donald Trump has been resorting to some wild lies about my record,” Vice President Harris said. “Some of what he and his running mate [United States Senator J.D. Vance] are saying is just plain weird. You may have seen that he just pulled out of [our scheduled] debate. I hope he reconsiders, because we have a lot to talk about. But the bottom line is that we have our work cut out for us. This is not going to be easy, but I know something about folks in this room, and that is we can do hard things, and we like hard work. I believe that we are going to win.”
Additional reporting, and special thanks, to Berkshire Edge columnist Peter Most.
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