Former President Trump returned to Pennsylvania Wednesday night to host a town hall on Fox News.
The primetime event, hosted by Sean Hannity, is taking place at the New Holland Arena in Harrisburg, the capital of the key state in the race between Republican nominee Trump and Democratic Vice President Harris.
Trump was already in Pennsylvania last Friday at a rally in Johnstown, in the west of the state.
FOX NEWS PRESS CONFERENCE WITH FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP, MODERATED BY SEAN HANNITY – WEDNESDAY 9 PM ET
Former President Trump, Republican presidential candidate, speaks at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on August 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Droke)
“In sixty-seven days, we’re going to win Pennsylvania,” the former president said.
Harris stopped in Pittsburgh on Monday to team up with President Biden at a Labor Day event in the state’s second-largest city and a union stronghold.
The vice president returns to Pittsburgh on Thursday to prepare for next week’s first and potentially only presidential election. presidential debate with Trump. Harris is expected to remain in the state until next Tuesday’s prime-time debate, which takes place in Philadelphia.
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While Election Day, Nov. 5, is nine weeks away, early voting in Pennsylvania begins this month, as Harris noted Monday when she told supporters that “ballots in Pennsylvania will begin to be cast in 14 days.”
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Harris and President Biden arrive at a campaign event at IBEW Local Union #5 in Pittsburgh on September 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Pennsylvania is arguably the most important of the seven swing states that decided the 2020 election between Trump and Biden and that both campaigns see as the states that will determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential contest.
“This is the one state where it’s hard to imagine someone losing and still winning the presidential race,” Mark Harris, a longtime Republican national strategist and adman based in Pittsburgh, told Fox News. “This is clearly ground zero.”
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“You can see it in the media bookings and the travel schedules of the candidates,” he said. “It’s clear that the Trump campaign and the Harris campaign believe this is a must-win situation.”
Mike Butler, a Pittsburgh-based Democratic consultant, told Fox News that when it comes to the White House race, “I don’t think any other state is as swing state as Pennsylvania.”
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Campaigns and super PACs supporting Harris and Trump have already spent more than $336 million to run ads in Pennsylvania, according to data from nationally known ad tracking firm AdImpact. That includes nearly $150 million to reserve airtime to air spots over the past two months, a figure that is expected to rise in the coming weeks.
The campaign isn’t just about the front-runners in Pennsylvania. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, is campaigning Wednesday and Thursday in Lancaster, Pittsburgh and Erie. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate, has campaigned in Pennsylvania nearly every week since becoming the Republican vice presidential nominee in mid-July.
GOP running mate Sen. J.D. Vance speaks 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 make up the Democrats’ “blue wall.”
The party reliably won all three states for a quarter-century before Trump narrowly won them in the 2016 election to claim the White House.
Four years later, in 2020, Biden won all three states by a slim margin, putting them back in the Democratic column after beating Trump.
Today, Pennsylvania remains a tight race, with the latest public opinion polls in the state indicating a margin of error between Harris and Trump.
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“It’s going to be a tough fight. I think Trump has some advantages,” Harris said. “But it’s definitely going to be a very close race.”
Butler noted that Pennsylvania had razor-thin margins in the last two presidential elections.
“Trump’s numbers are pretty strong. I don’t see how he could do any worse than the last two times, which means it’s going to be a very competitive state,” he said.
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