Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally outside Schnecksville Fire Hall on April 13, 2024 in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
WILKES-BARRE— For the first time in 2024, former President Donald Trump will rally supporters in Northeast Pennsylvania on Saturday The late afternoon rally will take place at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, not far from President Joe Biden’s boyhood home of Scranton. The northeastern region was key to Trump’s victory in 2016.
“President Donald Trump is devastated to see Pennsylvanians and all Americans suffer because of Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and radical Democrats,” Trump’s campaign wrote in a press release.
Saturday will be Trump’s seventh visit to Pennsylvania this year.
Democrats criticized Trump ahead of Saturday’s rally, with Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti calling him the “most anti-labor President in recent memory.”
“We’re going to elect Vice President Harris because we know she’s looking out for us. She’s talking about her economic plan that centers on lowering costs for folks here in Scranton and all across Pennsylvania… We are just 81 days out from Election Day, and here in Scranton, we are fired up for Vice President Harris and Governor Walz,” Cognetti said in a press release.
Trump’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton made him the first Republican candidate for president to win Pennsylvania since 1988. He flipped Luzerne County, where Saturday’s rally is being held, beating Clinton by 20 points. And even though Clinton eked out a 3.5-point victory in neighboring Lackawanna County that year, that was a much narrower margin than President Barack Obama’s 2012 victory over Republican Mitt Romney.
Obama won Luzerne County by 5 points and took Lackawanna County by 27 points in 2012.
When Biden won Pennsylvania in 2020, the numbers he put up in his native region played a key role, with an 8-point victory in Lackawanna County.
Biden made one appearance in Northeast Pennsylvania in April , calling the race between him and Trump “Scranton values or Mar-A-Lago values.” Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race in July following a poor debate performance against Trump in late June.
The densely populated southeast region of the commonwealth has seen a majority of the visits from both presidential campaigns in 2024.
Trump’s appearance in Pennsylvania on Saturday is the beginning of a hectic swing through the Keystone State for both campaigns.
On Sunday, Harris and Walz will embark on a bus tour in western Pennsylvania, ahead of the opening of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday.
Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), will deliver speeches revolving around the economy in separate appearances in York and Philadelphia on Monday.
Before Biden exited the race, polling consistently showed Trump with a narrow advantage in the Keystone State. However, Democrats have experienced a bump since Harris became the candidate at the top of the ticket.
An Emerson College poll released on Friday showed Trump and Harris tied at 47% each in the race that includes third party candidates, while other recent polls have shown Harris with a narrow edge in the race.
Pennsylvania is the biggest prize among battleground states this election, with 19 electoral votes, and both parties are going all-in to court its voters.
The Cook Political Report rates the presidential race in the state as a “toss-up” as of August 8.
This is a developing story that will be updated.