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As the campaign enters the home stretch, both candidates for president will be in Pennsylvania on Monday.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, will make her first appearance in Erie County since becoming the candidate at the top of the ticket. She’ll be joined by U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) for a rally.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s candidate, will hold his first public campaign event of the cycle in the Philadelphia suburbs. He’s set to host a town hall in Montgomery County.
It appears to be the first time the two candidates are in the battleground state on the same day since they met in Philadelphia for a debate on Sept. 10.
The events on opposite ends of the commonwealth represent different, but key constituencies.
Erie County in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania is a bellwether county that supported Democrat Barack Obama twice. Trump flipped Erie County into the win column for Republicans in 2016, thenDemocratic candidate Joe Biden flipped it back to blue in 2020, beating Trump by 1,417 votes in the county.
Montgomery County has become one of the most reliably Democratic counties in the Keystone State in recent years. The Democratic candidates for president the past few cycles have won the densely populated suburb just outside of Philadelphia by double digits.
In addition to Trump and Harris, Gwen Walz, wife of Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will be kicking off a multi-day tour in Pennsylvania, starting in the Philadelphia suburbs and the Lehigh Valley.
Monday is the start to another eventful week of campaigning for both tickets in Pennsylvania.
On Tuesday, both vice presidential candidates will be in the state; Walz will be in western Pennsylvania, while U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s running mate, will be in Montgomery County for a town hall hosted by a conservative organization, Moms for America. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are also scheduled to campaign in the Philadelphia area on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Harris will campaign in Philadelphia, while Vance will be holding a rally in Williamsport.
Polls continue to show Harris and Trump in a dead heat for Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes. A slew of national ratings outlets view the state as a “toss-up.”