Pittsburgh skyline. (Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH — President Joe Biden campaigned in Pittsburgh during a weeklong swing through Pennsylvania in April, a visit sandwiched between stops in his birthplace of Scranton and his favorite Pennsylvania city, Philadelphia.
He met with union workers, pledged to keep U.S. Steel American-owned, and even stopped at Sheetz, a smart nod to the weird but very real cross-state convenience store rivalry with Wawa.
But he hasn’t been back since.
Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump’s last campaign rally in western Pennsylvania was in Erie last July.
Both candidates have campaigned repeatedly in the eastern part of the state — with Trump venturing as far west as Harrisburg for a rally in February.
With due respect to both candidates: Get on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and head west. It’s almost July, the first debate is behind you, and if you think you can win Pennsylvania just by campaigning in the eastern half, you’re in for a rude awakening in November.
Biden makes unions and steel the focus of his first 2024 visit to Pittsburgh
Yes, Philly is important. And yes, compared to Pittsburgh, it is a much easier (read: shorter) trip from say, a courthouse in New York City, and is practically around the corner from Wilmington, Delaware and a mere stone’s throw from Washington, D.C.
First lady Jill Biden often describes herself as a Philly girl – and still has the tinge of a Philly accent — but even she has visited western Pennsylvania more than the candidates at the top of the ticket.
Geographically speaking, it’s a lot easier to campaign in the eastern part of Pennsylvania. But why any candidate would not campaign in the crucial — and changing — western region of the biggest battleground in the 2024 contest (with all due respect to Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia, of course) is a mystery.
Yes, Allegheny County trends blue, so Pittsburgh is not exactly friendly terrain for a Republican candidate; but then neither is Philly. Progressive candidates have garnered significant support in western Pennsylvania, with Democrats Ed Gainey, Sara Innamorato and Summer Lee creating a blueprint for how to run a progressive campaign and shake up the old guard. What are you doing to win over that growing bloc of voters?
Western Pennsylvania also is home to counties with some of the oldest populations of any of the oldest battleground states, and as election results show us time and time again, senior citizens reliably turn out to vote. But they, too, expect some face time from their candidates.
Trump flipped Pennsylvania red in 2016, and Biden flipped it blue again in 2020. But the margins of victory were slim, and while polls only show a small part of the campaign picture, in polls taken before Thursday’s debate (which may change the calculus), Trump and Biden were in a statistical tie for Pennsylvania. Every county in western Pennsylvania is crucial, and in this neck of the woods, a good number of counties are potentially flippable, if the candidate puts in the effort.
The electoral college math all but requires a candidate to win Pennsylvania’s 19 votes this year; and neglecting the vast swath of the Keystone State west of the Cumberland Valley isn’t going to cut it. The Biden campaign has two dozen offices in Pennsylvania, including one in Pittsburgh, so they’ve at least acknowledged that a presence in the region is vital. Trump’s lagging behind, but has opened several Pennsylvania offices in Philadelphia, Reading, Lancaster and Erie.
But there’s work to do for both candidates to win over yinzers. We’re in the heart of the 2024 run for the White House and the focus for the campaigns in Pennsylvania should now be: Time to head west.
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