HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are each traveling separately to the battleground state of Pennsylvania this week for campaign events, following Democrat Joe Biden’s speech in Pittsburgh on Monday where he blamed Trump for instigating violence in America’s streets.
Trump is to speak Thursday evening at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, about 30 miles (45 kilometers) east of Pittsburgh, his campaign said.
Pence was to appear Tuesday in Exeter, in northeastern Pennsylvania, at a construction company at a “workers for Trump” event.
Pennsylvania, with its 20 electoral votes and politically divided electorate, is of the utmost importance to both campaigns in the Nov. 3 presidential election.
Trump’s cabinet members and campaign ads from both sides are flooding the state, as Trump tries to pull off a repeat of his 2016 victory in Pennsylvania.
He performed unexpectedly well in counties that have a Democratic voter-registration edge and that are whiter, with lower median incomes and lower rates of college-degree attainment, than the rest of Pennsylvania.
Biden’s boosters in Pennsylvania see him as well-suited to attract conservative Democrats who drifted to Trump in 2016. Democrats in Pennsylvania have 4.1 million registered voters to 3.3 million Republicans.
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