WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump is rallying voters Saturday in northeastern Pennsylvania, a key battleground state where he hopes conservative, white, working-class voters near President Joe Biden’s hometown will boost the Republican’s chances of victory. back to the White House.
In 2016 and 2020, Trump crushed his Democratic rival in the blue-collar county of Wilkes-Barre. This Rust Belt region, where Biden’s native Scranton lives, offers hope to Trump and helps him focus on Democratic vulnerabilities after the president ended his re-election bid and Vice President Kamala Harris launched her campaign.
The rally comes as Democrats prepare for their four-day national convention, which begins Monday in Chicago and will mark the party’s nomination of Harris. Replacing Biden less than four months before the November election reinvigorated Democrats and their coalition and has presented Trump with a new challenge.
He has hit out at Harris on the economy, linking him to the Biden administration’s inflation problems and comparing his latest proposal against rising prices to measures taken by communist states. Trump says banning federal food price hikes would lead to food shortages, rationing and famine.
During his visit to the nation’s No. 2 natural gas nation, Trump has referenced Harris’ past opposition to fracking, the oil and gas recovery process. His campaign has tried to soften his stance, saying he wouldn’t deny it, even though that was his stance when he sought the 2020 presidential nomination.
Some Pennsylvania Democrats acknowledge the challenges, but say the economy is what worries most people in the area.
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis said in an interview that voters are “really fired up.” David Harris’ rally in Philadelphia will feature his running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as well as 36 field offices, including several in more Republican-leaning parts of the state.
“The energy has clearly shifted in a dramatic way toward Vice President Harris,” Davis said. He claimed that Trump is “just yelling and just attacking Harris personally.”
On Sunday, Harris plans a bus trip that starts in Pittsburgh and stops in Rochester, a small city to the north. On Monday, Trump has scheduled a visit to a factory that manufactures nuclear fuel tanks in York. Trump’s running mate JD Vance is expected to be in Philadelphia that day.
Trump’s Saturday rally will be his fifth at the arena in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County’s largest city, where he has won the last two elections. Biden beat Trump in neighboring Lackawanna County, where the Democrat has long promoted his working-class roots in Scranton.
Some of Biden’s loyal supporters in this former industrial city of 76,000 were shocked to see party leaders push the president to step aside.
Diane Munley, 63, says she called dozens of members of Congress to vouch for Biden. Munley eventually acquiesced to Biden’s decision and now strongly supports Harris.
“I can’t deny the enthusiasm that has been with this flag at the moment. I’m so excited about it, Munley said. “It just didn’t happen with Joe and I couldn’t see it at the time because I was so connected to him.”
He said he doesn’t know a Democrat or even an independent in his circle of a couple of hundred people who isn’t fully committed to Harris and Walz.
“We’re all in on Kamala Harris,” Munley said. “All 110%.”
