Harris, Trump plan visits to Pennsylvania this week
WASHINGTON — As another sign of Pennsylvania’s importance in this fall’s presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will be visiting the Keystone
State this week.
The winner of the
19 electoral votes in the most populous swing state in November is likely to be the one taking the oath of office at the U.S. Capitol next January.
“Pennsylvania is a key state here,” Rutgers University pollster Ashley Koning said. “Pennsylvania is incredibly important and almost certainly will be a battleground. This is kind of a no-brainer for candidates to visit the state. I’m sure we’ll seemany more visits there.”
Ms. Harris will be in Philadelphia on Monday. She’s scheduled to discuss how the current administration is working to lower costs, an important topic at a time when inflation, while below record levels, remains on the minds of many voters.
It will be her second trip to Pennsylvania this year, following herstop in Pittsburgh in February to talk about President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law. There, she announced that $5.8 billion in federal funding would go to states and territories for clean water improvements, including $200 millionfor Pennsylvania.
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, is heading to Schnecksville, in the Lehigh Valley, for a rally Saturday. As president, Mr. Trump campaigned in the region a week before the 2020 election.
He made his first Pennsylvania trip of 2024 to Harrisburg, speaking at a National Rifle Associationsponsored event.
Mr. Biden came to the Allentown area in January and stopped at several small businesses to talk about the economy, which polls show is his biggest weakness among voters, even as another 300,000 jobs were added in March.
And he traveled to the region during his first year as president to discuss expanding domestic manufacturing. He later signed into law a bipartisan bill providing incentives for companies to open plants in the U.S. rather than abroad.
Mr. Biden’s first campaign stop of 2024 was near Valley Forge, and his first appearance after this year’s State of the Union address was in the Philadelphia suburbs.