The 2024 presidential election could be decided by the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Ahead of November’s election, both presidential candidates have been campaigning extensively across the Commonwealth.
Erie County could be seeing an increase in candidate visits in the months leading up to the election.
In 2016, Erie voted red. Trump narrowly secured the county by 1,957 votes. In 2020, it went blue with Biden receiving 1,319 more votes than Trump. These results reflected which candidate the state of Pennsylvania voted for, making it a focal point for this year’s election.
In a recent interview, Joe Morris, chair of political science at Mercyhurst University, spoke to the unique political makeup of the northern Pennsylvania county. “In some ways, Erie County is a microcosm of Pennsylvania as a whole. We have an interesting mixture of rural and urban voters.”
He said that both Trump and Harris may pay the county a visit more than once during their campaigns.
Pennsylvania, a swing state, has a history of being one of the most critical states during an election cycle for the presidential race. Morris said, “there aren’t many paths to the White House that don’t go through Pennsylvania.”
While it can’t be said for certain whether the candidates will visit Erie in the coming weeks, the Erie County party chairs both think it’s likely to happen.
Minnesota Governor and Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Tim Walz will be visiting Erie on September 5th. Walz will speak at a rally in the evening at a location that is to be announced. Walz’s visit comes a little more than a week after Republican Vice-Presidential nominee J.D. Vance made a campaign stop in Erie on August 28th.
