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One last push for voters in Pennsylvania

Harry November 5, 2024

PHILADELPHIA — When Kamala Harris If he ends his campaign with a campaign rally at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Monday, he will do much more than make a cultural nod to his fight against the Republican presidential candidate. Donald Trump.

The boxing movie “Rocky” made the museum a landmark. But for the Harris campaign, her position is emblematic of the harsh argument the vice president is making about the fragility of American democracy.

“To do this in the city that founded our democracy, on the Ben Franklin Parkway for an election where we fought to save it, I think it means a lot,” Brendan McPhillips, Harris’ senior adviser in Pennsylvania, said in an interview.

Harris spoke last week from ellipse In Washington, D.C., then-President Trump addressed his supporters just before storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump, who refused to concede his 2020 election defeat to President Joe Biden and reflected on this over the weekend, said: He shouldn’t have left the White HouseHe would spend the second term focusing on complaints.

There was competition among the candidates in the polls conducted towards the last day of the election. more than 80 million The votes have already been cast.

Harris started her morning in Detroit after a series of rallies in Michigan the previous day. He was scheduled to make four stops in Pennsylvania before an evening concert in Philadelphia, where he will make his final speech to voters. The lineup for his latest rally includes Ricky Martin, Fat Joe, Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga.

The vice president’s campaign said in a call with reporters Monday: expects to have multiple routes he said were needed to win the 270 Electoral College votes needed to secure the presidency and highlighted Harris’ recent campaign activities in battleground states.

“We’re expending resources, building the organization, maximizing our advertising and programming, and traveling to every battleground state in the Blue Wall and Sun Belt because we find all of that work for us,” Harris’ campaign said. -chairman Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a meeting with reporters.

But Harris ending her tumultuous presidential bid in Pennsylvania is a tacit acknowledgment that the state, part of Democrats’ vaunted blue wall, is vital to her ability to win the White House.

“He’s saying what everyone already knows, which is that Pennsylvania is the key to Tuesday’s election success,” said Charlie Gerow, a Republican strategist who supports Trump. “And most people believe that if Pennsylvania goes, the nation goes too, which I think is right.”

Fight for 19 delegate votes

Harris and Trump emphasized the importance of Pennsylvania. Trump told his supporters at the Allentown rally He said last week that he believed the state, which had 19 delegate votes, would determine the outcome of the election.

“It’s in your hands. If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole deal,” the Republican presidential candidate said.

Trump won Pennsylvania by nearly 44,000 votes in his bid for the presidency in 2016. Biden won the state by more than 80,000 votes in 2020 and also won the White House.

Four years ago, Biden ended his campaign in Pittsburgh with a rally hosted by Harris. Simultaneous car rally in Philadelphia, Where black voters make up a significant portion of the population. The guys running in 2020 won both cities, as well as Erie in the northwest; Harrisburg is in the center; and the Lehigh Valley in the northeastern part of the state.

Harris identified Pennsylvania as the cornerstone of her campaign during a trip to Philadelphia in late October. “Pennsylvania will be key. There is no doubt,” he told reporters.

On Monday afternoon, Harris stopped by a canvassing event in Scranton and then made her first visit of the campaign to the predominantly Hispanic city of Allentown. He also plans to stop by a Puerto Rican restaurant in Reading with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-Y., and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Closing out her final day of 2024 campaign hearings, Harris will speak to supporters in Pittsburgh at a rally and concert alongside Katy Perry and Andra Day before a nightly rally in Philadelphia.

Harris uses 2022 election plan

The vice president follows A plan drawn up by Democrats There are winners in the state over the past four years, including U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, who campaigned for Harris in rural parts of the state.

While Trump won big in many of these counties in the last presidential election, Democrats running statewide were able to minimize the vote counts of their Republican rivals.

Fetterman campaigned over the weekend with former President Bill Clinton in Butler County, near Pittsburgh, and in Erie County, where the senator described him as “the greatest leader” in the state, if not the country. He spent Sunday in Beaver County, another county outside Pittsburgh that Trump won. visited for weeks his campaign.

In a phone interview from the road, Fetterman emphasized the importance of campaigning in redder parts of the state, beyond the urban core of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

“They’re the ones clogging the margins,” Fetterman said. “This is never about changing the color of a county on the map.”

Harris initially prioritized Pittsburgh and surrounding counties before shifting her focus to Philadelphia and its suburbs in the final weeks of the race.

Lately, the campaign has focused on counties where it believes could bring out suburban women and anti-Trump Republicans. He visited Philadelphia’s collar counties and targeted cities that traditionally vote Democratic, such as Harrisburg.

Former Trump 2024 primary opponent Nikki Haley won roughly one-fifth Even though Republicans in Pennsylvania are no longer running for president when they go to the polls, GOP voters in those districts.

Gerow, who lives in Harrisburg, a Democratic stronghold, rejected that strategy.

“Nikki Haley has made it very, very, very clear that she is 100 percent for Donald Trump, and her supporters are not going to say, ‘We don’t like Trump, so we like Harris.’ he said. “They won’t do that. I mean, Kamala Harris is the most left-wing candidate ever nominated by a major party.”

Harris’ campaign says it is pursuing a strategy that includes reaching out to voters in more conservative parts of the state.

“It was a really important part of our campaign that we went everywhere, talked to everyone, and had very authentic and genuine interactions with people,” said McPhillips, Fetterman’s campaign manager.

Making a play for Allentown

Harris’ late-game visit to Allentown on Monday was an example of how the candidate herself cannot be everywhere in the shortened campaign. His stop in the city he won with Biden four years ago came after Trump’s visit and an offensive joke It’s about Puerto Rico, from an insulting comic strip featured at the Republican candidate’s Madison Square Garden rally. There is a large Puerto Rican population in Allentown.

“She’s showing, and it shows her commitment to fighting for her last vote throughout the entire campaign,” Fetterman said of the events on the eve of Harris’ statewide election.

The second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, was in Lancaster and Altoona on Saturday while his wife was campaigning in other battleground states.

Biden also campaigned Saturday in his childhood hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and former First Lady Michelle Obama held a rally in Philadelphia. First Lady Jill Biden campaigned in the Philly suburbs and Harrisburg on Sunday.

Harris traveled to Arizona and Nevada late last week, spent Friday in Wisconsin, passed through Georgia and North Carolina on Saturday and campaigned in Michigan on Sunday before arriving in Pennsylvania on Monday. Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has made several stops in Wisconsin. He’ll end his night in Detroit.

Trump stopped in Reading earlier in the day and is closing his campaign With stops in Pittsburgh and a final rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, wraps up his 2024 campaign with stops in four different states; Newtown, Pennsylvania; Flint, Michigan; La Crosse, Wisconsin; and Atlanta.

The Republican ticket also included surrogates throughout the day Monday, including Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Byron Donalds and former U.S. attorney general Matt Whitaker.

Joey Garrison contributed to this report.