RANKIN, Pa. (RNS) — Beneath the lofty, rusted towers of the Carrie Blast Furnaces, a retired industrial site on the edge of Pittsburgh, Kamala Harris made her next-to-final bid to Pennsylvania voters with the help of Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, and performances by pop star Katy Perry and Grammy-winning soul singer Andra Day.
A Christian who is vocal about her faith, Day was accompanied on keyboard by her pastor as she sang Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child.”
“Mama may have, papa may have, But God bless the child that’s got his own,” she sang. The classic, about God acting on behalf of those who take action for themselves, echoes a point Harris has made throughout her campaign, including when it comes to acting on their beliefs. “Faith is a verb,” Harris is known to say.
Day introduced her hit anthem “Rise Up” by recalling a story from the Bible’s Book of Exodus. “As a believer, there’s a Scripture where Moses’ arms are too heavy as he’s praying for people, and there’s this picture that Aaron comes and lifts his arms for him … and I want all of us to be that for her, as she does this critical, critical, critical work,” she said about Harris.
Day conclu …