Pa. Democrats embrace state’s role in 2020 election

Post-Gazette Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Fifteen minutes into the Democratic National Convention on Monday, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., called the 2020 election the country’s most important trip to the ballot box since 1932, pointing to the worst public health crisis in a century and the worst economy since the Great Depression.

On Tuesday, Rep. Mike Doyle, DForest Hills, will lead speeches by Pennsylvania’s House delegation at breakfast, and in the evening, Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Mt. Lebanon, will lead a video compilation featuring more than a dozen rising young Democrats that will formally kick off the prime-time convention events.

Pennsylvania Democrats in Congress have been called to project unity, energy and confidence from a battleground state that is widely expected to swing the presidential election and contains prominent House races, too. President Donald Trump won Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes on his way to the White House in 2016, the first Republican to win the Keystone State since 1988.

If Democrats hope to regain control in the state, former Vice President Joe Biden, who is slated to accept the party’s nomination Thursday, and his newly minted running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., will depend mightily on elected officials representing Western Pennsylvania to get out the vote.

“You’re going to get a lot of activity here due to the fact that this is a critical state that we dare not lose,” Mr. Doyle said in an interview. The longest-serving member of Congress from Pennsylvania, Mr. Doyle said the BidenHarris ticket provides a boost to Democrats in five competitive races in the state, including Mr. Lamb’s race against Republican challenger Sean Parnell.

“Pennsylvania will be a busy state,” Mr. Doyle said.

This week, lawmakers enter the often-thankless world of delivering laudatory surrogate speeches on

behalf of their party’s nominee — and this time, they are convening panels and meeting with the nation’s political journalists over Zoom video calls.

Without the balloon-dropping pomp and cheering arenas of delegates, the convention will feature briefer sessions that zero in on concrete policy goals, Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez said Monday.

That strategy, Democratic officials said Monday, would be a boon to the Biden campaign in Pennsylvania and other Midwest battleground states.

“You’ll see laid out the contrast between Trump’s betrayal of workers and Biden’s dignity of work,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said on a call with reporters.

The convention “is concentrated into substance, more than pomp and circumstance and balloons and hoopla,” he said. “And it will, I think, be more instructive to the American public.”

Mr. Biden’s plans to rebuild infrastructure and reverse Mr. Trump’s policies on labor, environment and health care — encompassed with the campaign slogan “Build Back Better” — is ready-made for the Pittsburgh region, Mr. Lamb said in an interview.

Mr. Lamb, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, pointed to the region’s powerful coalition of labor groups that helped him win two elections for Congress in 2018.

The convention, Mr. Lamb said, will serve to “reintroduce” Pennsylvanians to Mr. Biden, who grew up in Scranton and has traveled through the state as a senator and vice president for decades.

“He knows what it’s like to grow up in the middle class, to have to fight to get your first job and make your way through school. He knows actually what it’s like to send one of his kids off to war,” Mr. Lamb said.

“He knows our people and he knows what they stand for.”

Mr. Casey, speaking by video during a breakfast session hosted by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, derided Mr. Trump’s “corporate agenda” of tax cuts and his administration’s legal pursuit to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which has expanded health coverage and provided patient protections.

Mr. Casey — who will lead Pennsylvania’s roll call of delegates in support of Mr. Biden on Thursday — said the country was now waking up to the reality that Mr. Trump had caused a prolonged health and economic crisis.

“There’s plain evidence in front of us now that he made this pandemic worse for our nation by not acting, by questioning the science, by attacking people who were taking affirmative steps to deal with the virus,” Mr. Casey said.

In a later interview, Mr. Casey said Mr. Trump’s actions during the COVID-19 pandemic would sink his chances in the state.

“People are going to decide this election on those fundamental issues: How are you going to deal with the virus, and how are you going to deal with the jobs crisis?” Mr. Casey said. “Joe Biden has a plan, and the president doesn’t.”

The convention launched five days after Mr. Biden announced Ms. Harris as his vice presidential pick. In the interview, Mr. Casey said he worked closely with Ms. Harris on criminal justice reform and legislation on policing. Ms. Harris brings “great character and experience” to the ticket, he said, especially with her background on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“Gone are the days when the vice president is not handed difficult assignments,” he said.