Pennsylvania gets increased focus by Trump campaign
HARRISBURG, PA. — President Donald Trump’s campaign has grownincreasingly focusedonmakinginroads in Pennsylvania to offset potential vulnerabilities in other battlegrounds.
The president traveled to the state for the second time in aweek on Saturday, hoping to attract the same rural andwhiteworking-class voterswho delivered him a narrowvictory here in2016. The in-person touch, inwhatmay become the most important battleground on the map, complements an aggressive get- out-the-vote operation that has been working for four years to find new voters by knocking on doors in competitive neighborhoods.
Trump narrowly flipped three Great Lakes states — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin— fromblue to red in 2016. He has virtually no path to reelection without keeping at least one of those states inhis column. His campaign has long viewedWisconsin as his best option, but aides who requested anonymity to discuss strategy said their thinking has begun to shift.
There are growing concerns inside the campaign, the aides said, aboutTrump’s ability to retain Wisconsin. EvenwinningthatupperMidwest battlegroundwouldn’t provide the needed votes if Trump’s Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, claims Arizona.
But Pennsylvania would be enough.
“With Pennsylvania, I don’t have to make a play, we’ve got Pennsylvania,” boasted Trump at a rally Tuesday night just outside Pittsburgh.
That may be harder than Trump suggests.
No GOP nominee since George H.W. Bush in 1988 had captured the state until Trump did four years ago, winning by just 44,000votes out ofnearly 5.9 million. And as someone born in Scranton, Joe Biden is also heavily focused on the state.
Recent Pennsylvania polls disagree over the state of the race: Some showTrump and Biden in a competitive race, while othershave Biden slightly ahead of Trump.
Pennsylvania is anchored by large cities — Philadelphia to the east, Pittsburgh to the west — on opposite ends, each with sprawling suburbs. But the rest of the state is largely rural.