Trump says Harris easier than Biden to beat as race for Pennsylvania heats up
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Republican presidential nominee and former US president Donald Trump speaks as he holds a campaign rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on Aug 17.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WILKES-BARRE, Pennsylvania - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Aug 17 he believed Democrat Kamala Harris will be easier to beat than President Joe Biden even as some polls showed her edging ahead in the race for the Nov 5 election.
Trump, the former president, made the remarks at a rally in Wilkes-Barre in the north-eastern part of Pennsylvania, a state looming large in the campaign.
Vice-President Harris will conduct a bus tour of western Pennsylvania starting in Pittsburgh on Aug 18, ahead of the kick-off of the Democratic National Convention on Aug 19 in Chicago.
"She will be easier to beat than him because she is truly a radical left lunatic," said Trump.
Trump has sought to portray Ms Harris as far left on a number of policies. At the rally he highlighted her previous call for a ban on fracking, an industry important to the state. Ms Harris’ campaign has recently indicated she would not support such a ban.
He also continued to attack Ms Harris on personal terms, even as some political analysts say such comments could hurt Trump with moderate voters.
“Have you heard her laugh? That is the laugh of a crazy person,” Trump said.
Pennsylvania was one of three Rust Belt states, along with Wisconsin and Michigan, that helped Trump to an upset victory in 2016. Mr Biden, who grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, flipped the trio back to the Democrats in 2020.
With 19 electoral votes out of the 270 needed to secure the White House, against 15 in Michigan and 10 in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania may be the biggest prize in this year’s election and potentially tip the balance for both candidates.
Ms Harris’ entry into the race after Mr Biden ended his re-election bid
Blanketing airwaves with ads
Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by about 44,000 votes, a margin of less than one percentage point, while Mr Biden prevailed by just over 80,000 votes in 2020, a 1.2 per cent margin.
Both campaigns have made the state a top priority, blanketing the airwaves with advertisements. Of the more than US$110 million (S$145 million) spent on advertising in seven battleground states since Mr Biden dropped out in late July, roughly US$42 million was spent in Pennsylvania, more than twice in any other state, the Wall Street Journal reported on Aug 16, citing data from the tracking site AdImpact.
Democratic and Republican groups have already reserved US$114 million in ad time in Pennsylvania from late August through to the election, more than twice as much as the US$55 million reserved in Arizona, the next highest total, according to AdImpact.
The Harris campaign said on Aug 17 it planned to spend at least US$370 million on digital and television ads nationwide between the Labour Day holiday on Sept 2 and election day on Nov 5.
The battleground states – seen as critical for winning the election – also include Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada and Georgia.
New polls published on Aug 17 by the New York Times found Ms Harris leading Trump among likely voters in Arizona, 50 per cent to 45 per cent, and in North Carolina, 49 per cent to 47 per cent, and narrowing the former president’s leads in Nevada, 47 per cent to 49 per cent, and in Georgia, 46 per cent to 50 per cent. A pollster from the Trump campaign said the poll results underestimated the Republican candidate’s support.
Trump and Ms Harris have visited Pennsylvania more than half a dozen times each this year. Trump was wounded during an assassination attempt
Trump will give remarks on the economy at a campaign event in York, Pennsylvania, on Aug 19. His running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, will also hold an event in Philadelphia that day.
Trump’s trip on Aug 17 to Wilkes-Barre in Luzerne county was aimed at solidifying support among the white, non-college-educated voters who lifted him to victory in 2016. The blue-collar county voted Democratic for decades before swinging heavily towards Trump in 2016, mirroring other similar regions around the country.
Trump took Luzerne in 2020 by 14.4 percentage points, a smaller margin than his 19.4 point win in 2016. With Mr Biden out of the picture, Trump likely sees room for gains in this area of the state, said political science professor Chris Borick from Muhlenberg College.
“This is the type of place where Trump has lots of strengths,” Prof Borick said, referring to the state’s north-east region. “Marginal gains in a region like this certainly could have some impact on his ability to take back Pennsylvania.”
Ms Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will make multiple stops across Allegheny and Beaver counties on Aug 18, the campaign said.
The tour is the first time Ms Harris, Mr Walz and their spouses have campaigned together since their first rally as a presidential ticket in Philadelphia earlier in August.
Pennsylvania was at the heart of Mr Biden’s victorious 2020 strategy across the Rust Belt states: limiting Trump’s margins among working-class white voters while building majorities among suburban voters and driving higher turnout in urban areas with large Black populations.
The Harris campaign is pursuing a similar “win big, lose small” strategy, aiming for large margins in the cities and suburbs of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, while limiting losses in smaller counties like Beaver County, where Trump won 58 per cent of the vote in 2020. REUTERS
