The keys to the White House may be decided on the ground in Pennsylvania, where campaigns are blanketing the commonwealth, and the pivotal suburbs.
Both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Philadelphia suburbs this week as they vie for Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes, and the suburban residents who could prove crucial to their effort.
“We just want to make sure that Kamala wins,” said Rosemary Moller. “Because the alternative is very frightening.”
She and her husband, Jeffrey, added to the more than one million door knocks the campaign has completed in the state as volunteers canvass out of 50 campaign offices. They hit the pavement in Montgomery County, a region they too call home.
“If you've judged by lawn signs, you'd have to say that, like, 99% of the lawns don't have a sign out at all, so you don't really know what's what's going on,” said Jeffrey Moller.
“In our neighborhood,” Rosemary Moller added, “It's a little bit more Kamala than Trump.”
The Harris-Walz campaign approaches Pennsylvania with go-everywhere tactics, but the suburbs are a significant target. They’re full throttle with organizing, phone calls and paid media, recognizing the need for significant margins in the suburbs to win Pennsylvania.
"You have to have significant margins in the suburbs. We will have significant margins in the suburbs. We've put in the work, not just on this campaign, but for years now, investing in county parties, investing in local races. We have excellent candidates for State House, State Senate seats there that are doing great work, and excellent members of Congress who are doing great work there. So we're all gas, no brakes on, boosting our margins in the suburbs as much as we can,” said Brendan McPhillipps, Senior Advisor for the Harris Campaign in Pennsylvania.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton received 742,226 votes in the four counties surrounding Philadelphia. Trump ultimately won the state. But in 2020, President Joe Biden got 170,792 more, when he ultimately turned the state blue that year.
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But the campaign sees the suburbs as their own blue wall, and believes they are seeing enthusiasm in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia that will match 2020 levels.
It believes they’re making progress in their suburban margins, in part contending Trump’s “extremism” is driving voters to them as they also focus on swaying Republicans, and make efforts in more historically red areas.
“Our township isn't the well to do area that you might find elsewhere in Montgomery County, people trying to raise their kids and put their kids through school and so forth. So I think money is a big issue,” said Jeffrey Moller, adding he doesn’t believe it makes sense to connect higher prices to the Biden administration.
The campaign is homing in on messages including Harris’ plan to combat price gouging, her healthcare policy, reproductive rights and around the issue of democracy.
It believes they’re making progress in their suburban margins, according to a senior advisor for Pennsylvania, in part contending Trump’s “extremism” is driving voters to them as they also focus on swaying Republicans, and make efforts in more historically red areas.
During the Republican primary, more than 19% of voters supported Nikki Haley over Trump in Bucks County, and nearly 25% of voters supported Nikki Haley over Trump in Montgomery County.
"Our campaign is closing out the final weeks by expanding, by going to more places, places that are good for our base, and places that are deep red counties,” said McPhillipps. “We're building a bigger tent and filling it up with supporters. And in the final weeks of a tight campaign, you want to be the campaign that is growing, not the campaign that's shrinking."
“The coalition we have built has room for everyone who is ready to turn the page on the chaos and instability of Donald Trump,” Harris said during a rally alongside Republicans who have endorsed her at Washington Crossing.
But former president Donald Trump’s team has dismissed concerns over former Haley supporters backing Harris, as they zero in on issues like inflation, the economy and the border.
“We win this great commonwealth, we are going to win the whole ball game,” Trump said during a town hall in Oaks, PA earlier this week, his first visit to the collar counties since the Republican National Convention.
A campaign official described it as a battle of ideas, noting they are quadrupling down on the message ‘are you better off now than you were four years ago?’ in the counties surrounding Philadelphia.
The official said they are “feeling good” about the counties, pointing to their ground game investments, the campaign having more than two dozen offices across the state, and Bucks County where slightly more Republicans than Democrats have registered to vote.
That’s where Caroline Devenuto is volunteering, one of thousands across the state.
“Definitely feeling confident because there's so much more visibility this election,” she said, who is volunteering as a “Trump Force 47” team captain this election.
“I've never gotten money from anybody in my entire life, much less from the President of the United States. So during COVID, when, like, all of us single mothers were out here scrapping for money, like, you know, trying to make ends meet, that was the I was like, you know, he sees us. He cares about us.” she said.
For each campaign, reaching women in the suburbs is a particular focus.
“Well, I've always supported Trump. My biggest issue, as I mentioned, was immigration. I'm a first generation American. My parents immigrated to America legally and that's how it should be done, the way my parents came to this country,” said Vicky Wagner.
She was part of a group of women that came together to see Trump at the town hall. For some, it was their first time seeing the former president, pointing to immigration, safety, affordability and foreign affairs as top concerns.
“I know people that voted for him first and then the second election they did not in this election they're back. Women. So hopefully, you know, we're going to see a big change in that. I hope more women do come out,” said Colleen Rossi, noting she did consider other candidates but believes “he’s the only one that can get the job done” and plans to vote for him again.
But polling has shown a historic gender divide, with women breaking for Harris in record numbers. Her campaign believes it has grown support among them, and on the trail has heavily focused on reproductive rights.
“I’m a nurse, so you know, it might not be my choice, but even though I'm 68 years old, I still have a vote, and I can vote for my, you know, my nieces and other women I know,” said Rosemary Moller.
With a race in battlegrounds that’s sure to be close, there are still challenges. Former Democratic Congresswoman Marjorie Margolies, the first woman to represent her suburban Philadelphia district in Congress, now teaches about women in politics at the University of Pennsylvania.
“I still think that many, many, many people are more comfortable walking into the voting booth and voting for a White male. And that's what I said when on the when I went to Congress the first year of the woman, we knew that we were pushing the rock up the hill,” Margolies said.
Now comes a push into the home stretch outside Philadelphia for each campaign, in the collar counties that could decide the presidency.
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