Could Polish Americans help swing the presidential election? In Chicago, they’re split.

The ears of Polish Americans were perked up during the only presidential debate when Democratic nominee Kamala Harris warned that former President Donald Trump would sell out Ukraine to Vladimir Putin — and Poland would be the Russian leader's next target.

The stark warning was strategically aimed at 800,000 Polish Americans in the must-win battleground state of Pennsylvania, where Democrats won by just 80,000 votes in 2020.

“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 asked Trump at the debate, held in Philadelphia.

That message isn’t the only issue resonating for Polish Americans in the Chicago area ahead of the Nov. 5 election, who say the economy, opportunities for small-business owners and abortion rights are trumping fears of war.

While Trump is also courting Polish Americans in battleground states, his emphasis on Christian values and vows to broker a peace deal with Russia have drawn strong support from older, conservative Polish American enclaves around Chicago — but aren’t resonating with younger Poles who veer to the left.

“For decades in the Chicago area, you knew darn well everyone who gets elected should be a Democrat,” said Frank Spula, president of the Northwest Side-based Polish National Alliance and the Polish American Congress. “In our state, it's a little split now."

Generational divide

To Marek Suszko, a senior lecturer at Loyola University Chicago, Harris’ shoutout to Poland resonated more with Poles watching in their native country, not in America.

“The Polish people in Poland are much more worried about war than the Polish Americans. The Polish Americans, rather, are much more worried about the economy,” said Suszko, who teaches courses in Polish and European history. “The economy is doing well, but for whatever reasons, politicians have been able to manipulate the public. …They’re doing well, but they’re also quite worried about the economic future.”

Younger generations of Polish Americans, those born in the United States, “tend to be more oriented towards more liberal ideas than the older ones,” he said.

“They’re much less afraid and much more inclusive,” Suszko said.

Heidi Zeiger/For the Sun-Times

Suszko said Poles in Poland see Trump as a weaker candidate in terms of foreign policy “and in terms of his capacity to outsmart Putin.”

"This is where those in Poland are trying to kind of get the attention of their relatives here in the United States of America, to try to convince them,” Suszko said, “... that Kamala Harris may be a stronger candidate because she is a much stronger competitor to Putin and other dictators around the world.”

Luke Siuty, a Lake View resident, emigrated from Poland when he was 12. Siuty said he is skeptical of Trump’s claims that he will help to end the Ukraine war. And he’s not convinced that either side has done enough to court Polish voters.

“I think the Biden administration was pretty slow on responding to Ukraine’s needs, like helping them with the war, and I’m not sure it’s going to change,” Siuty said. “And Trump says that he would end the war immediately, but I think with his possible ties to Russia, this is a little bit dubious.”

Siuty also said abortion remains a hot topic in Poland, with a slew of protests — and Harris’ focus on reproductive rights might help her win some support with more liberal Polish voters.

“I think Polish people are kind of split on that, and many people are in favor of abortion when it’s necessary,” Siuty said.

Chicago’s deep Polish roots

Those more liberal viewpoints clash with perspectives from other corners of the Polish American community across the Chicago area, which has served as a bastion for newcomers since the 1800s.

Growing up in Chicago at the height of former Mayor Richard J. Daley’s power, Mary Anselmo witnessed the city’s Polish community gradually shift from its status as a reliable ethnic cog of Democratic machine politics.

“Nobody questioned anything in the 1960s and ‘70s,” said Anselmo, 70, a third-generation West Side native who lives in Lincolnshire. “Precinct captains came to your house, had coffee, talked to people at the grocery store. They knew who you were by your last name.”

Chicago’s main Polish port of entry — Avondale — saw a huge influx in the 1980s when martial law was enacted in communist Poland to counter competing political opposition, including the union-led Solidarity movement that ousted the Moscow-backed authoritarian regime.

Milwaukee Avenue became the nexus for Polish people to eat, live and worship. The eternally popular Pope John Paul II, then the Archbishop of Krakow, visited Avondale’s St. Hyacinth Basilica several times. Archer Heights and Brighton Park on the Southwest Side also became Polish enclaves.

More Poles started moving toward the Republican Party in the 1990s, largely because of progressive Democratic policies that some viewed as inching toward socialism — and harkening back to authoritarian communist rule from the 1950s through ‘89, Anselmo said.

Any Trump mention of Harris being a “Marxist” is met with fear — despite that claim being false.

“Unfortunately, some of the language around Harris is working too," Siuty said. "Language of people claiming she’s a socialist or communist. I had a tiff with an older uncle where he was convinced that Democrats will take away monthly from his bank and the socialists will own everything. Which is really disappointing to see anyone use that kind of language. We have a soft spot around communism. And that’s something we’re afraid of and that we react very negatively to.”

‘We like to have our own castle’

The Solidarity-era immigrants who flocked to Chicago tended to be younger, highly educated professionals who quickly adopted the American lifestyle, said Michael Niedzinski, president of the Polish American Congress’ Illinois Division. His nonpartisan organization leads voter registration and outreach efforts.

Those transplants soon made their way to suburbs like Park Ridge, Niles and Barrington to work, worship and — perhaps most importantly — own property.

“Poles take pride in being homeowners. We hate being renters. We like to have our own castle,” said Niedzinski, a South Barrington aerospace engineer who came to the United States at age 15. “These are conservative, hard-working individuals with global concerns and local concerns.”

Many in the region's devoutly Catholic and often business-minded Polish community are focused on economic and educational issues, along with the looming specter of Putin. Some of Harris’ policies about affordable housing are regarded as irrelevant.

Niedzinski, who supports Trump, said the Chicago machine that once wove Polish neighborhoods into the fabric of local politics has lost support among Chicago Poles amid corruption and Springfield's fiscal woes.

“When it comes to taxation to pay for irresponsible spending," Niedzinski said, "the Polish American community is very concerned about that: excessive, irresponsible taxation and ongoing revelations about indictments of local politicians for corruption. That creates a major revulsion.”

Anselmo, who leads the Legion of Young Polish Women, said most Polish people she talks to “are strong Trump supporters. They’re Republican diehards.”

Two weeks ahead of the election, she said she was undecided but leaning toward Trump.

“I wish he would just say the answers and then ‘no comment.’ I just want to put tape around his mouth sometimes,” said Anselmo.

Eight years after voting for Hillary Clinton, “it’s killing me” to potentially end up voting against the first woman to take the White House, Anselmo said.

Trump-Harris strategies

Many Poles, including Anselmo, feel the Biden administration has overseen an overly lenient immigration system for asylum seekers at the southern border, compared to their Polish relatives who often often faced long delays to entry.

"It took between five and 10 years to get permission to come here. You had to have sponsors and evidence that you could support your family for a year," said Spula, the Polish National Alliance president and a third-generation Chicago native.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Trump hits the right notes on the immigration issue for more conservative Poles, Spula said, and the former president cemented his support among many in the area when he showed up to the Polish National Alliance's Chicago office in 2016.

"He came to our office. He asked, 'What does your community need?' And he heard about the visa waiver program. And he made it happen," Spula said. Trump issued an order in 2019 streamlining travel between Poland and the United States, allowing Polish citizens to visit for up to 90 days without a visa.

"They have a strong sentiment toward that. They remember what he did," Spula said, noting an uptick in U.S. military presence in Poland under Trump.

And crucially, Trump has maintained those ties, Spula noted. Trump phoned in to the Polish American Congress’ 80th anniversary celebration last month, saying to cheers that “we will return to peace through strength.”

“Poland is going to be a safe, very safe country with all this happening over there right now. Poland will always be safe as long as I'm president, and I can tell you, and Russia never would have invaded Ukraine if I was president,” Trump said during a three-minute call.

Harris’ campaign has been targeting Polish Americans, specifically in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. An ad that began running last month featured a Trump clip in which he said he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO countries that don’t meet spending guidelines on defense.

“Kamala Harris has heard the trumpet call,” a narrator says. “She will defend our brave allies — for their freedom, and for ours.”