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WILKES-BARRE — Award-winning actress Christine Baranski will be in Luzerne County on Wednesday to campaign for the Harris-Walz team on a bus tour, seeking out Polish-American and Eastern European voters.
In a telephone interview with the Times Leader, Baranski said she is looking forward to meeting people and talking about the campaign.
“I’m up for anything,” Baranski said. “I might knock on doors, do some canvassing and I’ll even give pep talks to volunteers. And I hope to speak at a rally at the end of the day.”
Baranski said she will begin her bus tour in Doylestown and she plans to visit the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, a Polish-American Roman Catholic shrine near Doylestown that was founded in 1953 and houses a reproduction of the Black Madonna icon of Częstochowa, Poland.
Baranski said she is supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Gov. Tim Walz because she feels they have the compassion and empathy for middle class people and will do all they can to improve their lives.
“And I can relate to that,” Baranski said. “I grew up in Buffalo, NY, in a home with a lot of economic anxiety. So I decided I wanted to get out and talk about this campaign and our vice president, who I hope will be our next president.”
Baranski said she can relate to Harris because, like Harris’ mom, Baranski’s mother sacrificed a lot to make ends meet.
“I think Vice President Harris has a visceral approach based on her life experience,” Baranski said. “She knows what that struggle for success is all about, in contrast to her opponent who inherited millions of dollars from his father and who lives in a gilded palace in Florida. Kamala Harris has a tremendous capacity for empathy that is born of experience because she lived through it — she understands.”
Baranski said she wants to tell people where she’s from, that she was raised in the same type of community.
“My father and my uncles fought in World War II,” she said. “As a child, I listened to my parents and family speak the Polish language. I learned that Polish people have tremendous pride in Polish culture and such pride in their country.”
Baranski said she traveled to Kraków, Poland, because she has always felt a tremendous connection to her Polish heritage.
“The Polish people are heroic, as are the Ukrainians,” Baranski said. “And Trump is so friendly with Putin, who has directed that Russian oppression, Trump would probably prefer ending that war by giving Putin Ukraine. That prospect has Polish people everywhere living in fear.”
The bus tour will include a “Poles to the Polls” canvassing launch in Wilkes-Barre, where Baranski will be joined by local Polish-American elected officials, including State Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski and former Congressman and national security expert Tom Malinowski.
Baranski, an Emmy and Tony Award-winning star of stage, film, and television, known for her work on the series “The Good Fight” and “The Good Wife,” and most currently “The Gilded Age,” as well as the hit “Mama Mia!” films, will lead the tour.
The canvassers, including, Baranski, will knock on doors for Democratic candidates from approximately 3 p.m.-6 p.m., beginning at the Democratic office on Public Square. Following the canvass, there will be an event tentatively scheduled for Genetti’s at 7 p.m.
Baranski will be the special guest star, and among the speakers will be former Congressman Tom Malinowski, and State Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski.
On the debate stage in September, Vice President Harris took Donald Trump to task for his cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin and for refusing to say whether Ukraine should win the war with Russia. She warned that if American and NATO support for Ukraine wavered, Putin would look to Poland next — calling on Trump to “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?”
Later that month, dozens of Polish-Americans across Pennsylvania penned a letter endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz — and blasting Trump’s comments on the war in Ukraine.
Polish-Pennsylvanians have expressed fear that Trump would hand Putin a victory as president. The Harris for Pennsylvania campaign is working to mobilize and activate these voters through community events, text and phone-banking, and canvassing in counties with strong concentrations of Polish-Pennsylvanians.
Luzerne County is the only county in the country where a plurality of residents are of Polish descent. In Luzerne, one in six residents identify as Polish, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Vice President Harris stopped in Luzerne County on Friday, Sept. 13, speaking to a crowd of more than 5,000.
In the letter, the Polish-Americans across Pennsylvania, said:
“Vice President Harris has a long, strong track record of protecting our democracy here at home and standing up for our brothers, sisters, parents and grandparents in Poland — the same people Vladimir Putin hopes to attack next if Ukraine were to fall.
“In stark contrast, earlier this year, Trump said he would encourage Russia to ‘do whatever the hell they want’ to our NATO allies, and during the debate last week, he twice refused to answer a question about whether he wanted Ukraine to win their war against Russian aggression.
“Polish people in the U.S. and around the world know that our future is tied to Ukraine’s because if Putin is allowed to trample Ukraine, we know his next target could be Poland. Trump bowed to dictators like Putin before and he will do it again if he is reelected. Trump’s Project 2025 agenda would be even worse for our national security and military readiness, including remaking the Department of Defense and reducing the number of generals in our armed forces.
“Thankfully, this November, we can elect a true leader who will stand up to autocrats and stand up for us. Vice President Harris will lead us forward on a different path — one where we stand with allies, stand for democracy, and stand against those who oppose it. She is a proven leader on the world stage and will use her expertise to ensure America’s security and defeat our adversaries.
“We sincerely believe the freedoms and livelihoods of our families at home and abroad rest upon rejecting Donald Trump and turning the page with Kamala Harris this fall. The last presidential election in Pennsylvania was decided by just 80,000 votes, which is why we are calling on our friends and neighbors to cast their votes for the leaders who will maintain alliances that make our world safer, expand our freedoms here at home, and protect the American dream for us all.”
Reach Bill O’Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.