With less than a week left until November 5, we’re likely to see a frantic influx in the number of campaign events from both of this year’s 2024 Presidential candidates as they aim to reel in as many voters as possible. Donald Trump seems to be favoring rallies as his method to convince any lingering undecided voters, with his most headline-inducing being a September 26th Pennsylvania rally, where the former President took several jabs at his opponent by questioning Kamala Harris’ mental stability. Trump blatantly stated, “Crooked Joe became mentally impaired. Sad. But lying Kamala Harris, honestly, I believe she was born that way. There’s something wrong with Kamala, and I just don’t know what it is, but there is definitely something missing.” The quote from ABC News has yet to garner a positive reaction from potential undecided voters with Kamala Harris seeming to be the only one who has yet to respond to the statement and most likely won’t, as a part of her and her campaign’s strategy is to simply ignore these types of remarks. Even when the former President questioned her racial identity, Kamala Harris barely acknowledged the statement, going as far as to dismiss the question when it came up in her first interview for CNN saying simply, “Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please.” In general, Harris’s main approach is to focus on policy plans, emphasizing clean-cut politics to win voters over. At the same time, Trump often goes off script at his rallies and makes derogatory statements to energize his base.
Furthermore, his actions at the Pennsylvania rally lead down a much bigger rabbit hole for Donald Trump’s road to victory, and the election as a whole. According to a rally tracker made by Newsweek, which tracks both Trump’s and JD Vance’s appearances, it is recorded that they have held the majority of their rallies in Pennsylvania, with a whopping 8 since Harris became the nominee. While Pennsylvania has been a historically Blue or Democratic state since 1992, because of recent history it is now considered a swing state; Trump was able to flip it in 2016, and then Biden took it back in 2020 ( U.S. News). With its new status, it’s not surprising that Trump has been caught spending so much money and time on the area, as Greeley Global 9 teacher Mr. Barr stated in an interview, “…as a campaign, you sort of got to think what’s the most bang for your buck, and if these are literally the states that are going to determine the election, I mean they’re spending millions of dollars on them…”
With 19 electoral votes up for grabs, Pennsylvania could help push either candidate over the 270 needed to win the Presidency. The state plays into both Harris’ and Trump’s road to victory, with NBC News stating that Harris’ easiest path consists of winning three swing states part of the “blue wall,” Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, and Trump having to flip three swing states in an area called the Sun Belt–Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina while nabbing any one of the aforementioned swing states in Harris’ plan. Trump’s continued presence in the state underscores the importance of Pennsylvania to his campaign and his path to the Presidency. Moreover, the ominous nature of Pennsylvania polls doesn’t seem to be giving any guidance as to where the state will fall, as in his interview Mr. Barr also iterated, “…[Pennsylvania] is the tipping point state. A lot of the swing states are maybe leaning slightly one way or the other…and Pennsylvania’s the one that’s in the middle right between…” Similar to the country as a whole, Pennsylvania could very much turn red or blue on election night, and with both Trump and Harris counting on its electoral votes, calling it the “tipping point state,” is highly accurate. With both candidates about to step off of the campaign trail in a matter of days, there isn’t much time to sway the polls dramatically, all Trump and Harris can truly do at this point is allowing the dice to fall where they may, and hoping that they are delivered with one states set of 19 electoral votes needed to secure the Presidency.
