Trump heads to Pennsylvania as polls show toss-up with Kamala Harris
Former President Donald Trump headed to Harrisburg, Pa., for a town hall forum on Wednesday as new polls show a toss-up race with Kamala Harris in the crucial Keystone State.
Trump will interact with voters at the Fox News event hours after a new poll of battleground states showed him and Harris each winning 47% of Pennsylvania voters, even as the Democrat grabs a narrow lead in other Rust Belt swing states.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz is countering Trump by appearing in Lancaster, just 40 miles away from Trump’s event in a swingy section of otherwise deep red central Pennsylvania.
Walz, whose folksy style and small-town upbringing makes him a big asset to Harris in the heartland, will hold another day of campaign events Thursday in Erie while Harris returns to Pittsburgh for the second event in a week on Friday.
The importance of winning Pennsylvania, for Trump in particular, is underlined by a new CNN poll of the battleground states that shows the former president trailing in Michigan and Wisconsin, the other two states in the so-called blue wall of Rust Belt battleground states.
Harris has razor-thin edges in the Sun Belt battleground states of Georgia and Nevada, while Trump leads in Arizona.
If Trump can flip the Sun Belt swing states President Joe Biden won in 2020, he still needs to pick off at least one of the blue wall states to get to 270 electoral votes, which may explain why Trump and his Republican allies are so laser-focused on Pennsylvania.
Analysts note relatively high numbers of voters say they could still switch candidates across all the battleground states. Those seven states include North Carolina, which Trump narrowly won over Biden four years ago.
About one in six voters told CNN pollsters they are still open to changing their mind between Trump and Harris.
“When you’re talking about such close races, that’s a sizable chunk,” said David Chalian, CNN’s political director.
Megan Hays, a Democratic strategist, said the enthusiasm sparked by Harris has put in play a large group of voters who were previously leaning to Trump when he was seeking to oust Biden.
“There are a lot of independent voters who are not firmly in Trump’s camp like we thought,” Hays said on CNN.
The new campaign action comes as Trump and Harris ready themselves for their debate on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
The clash is considered a potentially crucial turning point in the race, particularly for Harris.
The Democratic nominee upended the race when Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her in July. She unified the Democratic base and has forged a narrow lead in polls over Trump.
Most voters already have very strong opinions about Trump. But Harris remains relatively little known to the electorate, particularly the less-engaged independent voters who will likely determine the winner in November.
