Former President Donald Trump He’s headed back to Pennsylvania to speak as the keynote speaker at a Fox News town hall on Wednesday evening.
Sean Hannity-Moderation The prime time event is being held at the New Holland Arena in Harrisburg, the capital of a key battleground state in the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump earlier attended a rally in Johnstown in western Pennsylvania last Friday.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Cambria County War Memorial’s First Summit Arena on Friday, August 30, 2024, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Rebecca Droke)
The former president declared, “67 days from now, we will win Pennsylvania.”
Harris stopped in Pittsburgh on Monday to join President Biden for a Labor Day event in the state’s second-largest city and a union stronghold. Vice President She returns to Pittsburgh on Thursday for her second stop this week.
The vice president is heading back to Pittsburgh on Thursday to prepare for his first and possibly only trip next week. Presidential debates with Trump. Harris is expected to remain in the state until next Tuesday’s prime time debate in Philadelphia.
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While election day on Nov. 5 is nine weeks away, early voting in Pennsylvania begins this month, as Harris said Monday, telling supporters that “ Pennsylvania The decline will start within 14 days.”
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and President Biden arrive at a campaign event at the IBEW Local Union #5 union hall on Labor Day, Monday, September 2, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
Pennsylvania is arguably the most important of the seven states that decided the 2020 election between Trump and Biden, and both campaigns view it as one that will determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
“This is a state where it’s hard to see someone losing and still winning the presidential race,” Mark Harris, a longtime Republican national strategist and ad maker who lives in Pittsburgh, told Fox News. “This is clearly ground zero.”
“You can see it in the media reservations and the candidates’ travel schedules,” said Mark Harris, a veteran of several Republican presidential campaigns. “Clearly, the Trump campaign and the Harris camp believe this is a must-win situation.”
Mike Butler, a Pittsburgh-based Democratic consultant, told Fox News that as far as the White House race is concerned, “I don’t think any other state will have as much of an impact as Pennsylvania.”
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Campaigns and wealthy super PACs supporting Harris and Trump have already spent more than $336 million to run ads in Pennsylvania, according to data from AdImpact, a nationally known ad tracking firm. That includes about $150 million to reserve air time to run ads in the final two months — a figure that’s likely to grow in the coming weeks.
It’s not just Pennsylvania that’s seeing top-level campaigning. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee, will campaign in Lancaster, Pittsburgh and Erie on Wednesday and Thursday. Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate, has made campaign stops in Pennsylvania nearly every week since becoming the GOP’s vice presidential nominee in mid-July.
GOP running mate Senator JD Vance criticizes Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz at a Trump campaign event in Philadelphia on August 6, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Pennsylvania, along with Michigan and Wisconsin, are the three Rust Belt states that form the Democrats’ so-called “Blue Wall.”
The party won the three states for 25 consecutive years until Trump won them by narrow margins in the 2016 election to enter the White House.
Four years later, in 2020, Biden won all three states by narrow margins, defeating Trump and putting them back in the Democrats’ grasp.
As of now, Pennsylvania remains a volatile contest, as the latest opinion polls in the state show a neck-and-neck race between Harris and Trump.
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“It’s going to be a fight to the end. I think Trump has some advantages,” Mark Harris said. “But it’s definitely going to be a very close contest.”
Butler said the margin of victory in Pennsylvania has been very narrow in the past two presidential elections. “Trump’s numbers are very strong. I can’t see him doing any worse than the last two times, which means it’s going to be a very competitive state,” he said.
