Biden, Trump campaigns laser in on Pennsylvania as campaign heats up

WASHINGTON, D.C. (NewsNation) — Pennsylvania is a critical state that will determine the outcome of the 2024 general election, making it a focus for the campaigns of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

In 2020, President Biden won the state by just over 80,000 votes (1.17%). It is considered a state that Biden is expected to win again in 2024, meaning that if Trump takes the state in November, he will likely be president again. Latest research data from Hill Headquarters/Decision Desk shows Trump maintaining a slight edge in the state.

As both campaigns reach across the Commonwealth, their approaches have been very different.

The Biden campaign

The incumbent president’s campaign, along with the Democratic National Committee and the state party, has so far opened 24 offices across Pennsylvania and already has more than 100 employees on the ground. Many of these offices – in urban, swing and Republican districts – have been open and active for months. The campaign expects the number of offices to double in the coming months.

“We’re showing up everywhere,” said Brendan McPhillips, a senior adviser to the Biden campaign. “We are putting real physical infrastructure on the ground. We’re putting hundreds of organizers on the ground, and there will be thousands of volunteers working in these spaces across the state, talking to hundreds of thousands of voters repeatedly for months.

The campaign’s strategy so far has been to energize the Democratic voter base behind Biden, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, and reduce Trump’s margins with Republicans and independent voters.

“You can’t beat Pennsylvania just in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. You have to do well there, but you have to keep your margins high statewide,” said Stella Sexton, vice chair of the Lancaster County Democratic Committee. “They were [Lancaster County], I think, the fifth largest county in Pennsylvania. The population is around 550,000 people. And so we really represent an area where that growth is possible. And we are being given the resources to do that.”

Although historically Republican, Lancaster County has become a more swing county in recent elections.

Despite poll data favors Trumpthe Biden campaign believes that the tide will change, with abortion being a major motivating factor for voter participation.

“When they are [voters are] Faced with the choice of filling out the mail-in ballot or walking into the polling place and deciding whether or not they want to continue to have a democratic republic, or just see how long the country will survive with the incoming Trump administration, they will have made the choice. rational and values-based approach to voting for the president who ran to unite the country, ran to deliver real economic success for people, and accomplished both,” McPhillips said.

The Trump campaign

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee have been less open about office locations and staffing plans.

“We have a lot of offices open…but we are not revealing the campaign strategy and sharing every location in the state. …Our campaign is not limited to offices,” said an RNC official.

In contrast to Biden’s campaign, the former president’s team is trying to erode Democratic urban margins with black and brown voters by unveiling an office in Philadelphia.

The first public job openings took place last week in Northeast Philadelphia, a whiter and more Republican part of the city, although an RNC official says the area is rapidly diversifying.

McPhillips disputes both the demographics and the idea that Trump will make headway with black voters.

“It is extremely offensive to hold an event aimed at black voter outreach in one of the whitest and most conservative neighborhoods in the city,” he said. “And there is also not a single black voter from Pennsylvania speaking at his event, which I think speaks to the complete absence of support for Trump among that community.”

US Republican Party Representatives Byron Donalds and Wesley Hunt of Florida were the featured participants.

Thursday, a “Latin Americans for Trump” office opened in Reading, which has a large Hispanic population.

A Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Dave McCormick, and a former governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuno, along with Berks County Commissioner Michael Rivera, were scheduled to speak at the opening.

In addition to opening offices, the RNC official said Trump is reaching voters in a way “unlike any candidate has been able to do in the past.”

Trump’s campaign messages focus primarily on the economy and security, citing Civiqs public opinion poll as proof of voters’ discontent with the current president.

“With just a 35% job approval rating, Joe Biden is struggling in his home state of Pennsylvania. Between higher gas prices, rising crime, and failed Democratic policies that crush families at every corner, it’s no wonder that Pennsylvanians across the Commonwealth are increasingly rejecting Biden’s failed agenda and the support President Trump,” said Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign.