Harrisburg | Former President Donald Trump returned to Pennsylvania on Wednesday evening for the first time since Vice President Kamala Harris emerged as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and wiped away the Republican’s lead in this battleground state.
The visit was Mr. Trump’s first to Pennsylvania since he survived an assassination attempt at a rally near Pittsburgh. The rally was a chance to fire up his loyal supporters in a MAGA-friendly part of a state that is shaping up as “do or die” for Ms. Harris.
The race reset, Mr. Trump said, offers voters the starkest of contrasts.
“On the one hand, you have a radical-left puppet candidate who is fake, fake, fake. And on the other hand, you have a president who will fight, fight, fight for America,” Mr. Trump said, whipping the crowd into a frenzy.
Mr. Trump said Ms. Harris has undergone a “Houdini-like” transformation in the press in recent weeks, going from being seen in polls as the worst vice president in history to being billed as the “new Margaret Thatcher.”
He also insisted his likely Democratic rival is trying to run away from the record she has amassed as President Biden’s sidekick, as a U.S. senator for California, and a prosecutor in ultra-liberal San Francisco.
“No matter how much Kamala Harris tries to change her image she cannot change this fact: She is the most extreme liberal candidate in the history of our country by far,” he said. “She is an extreme, radical-left lunatic.”
Mr. Trump said she cannot compete with his record of accomplishment on everything from the economy to inflation and immigration.
“She will destroy our country,” he said.
Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes arguably are the Electoral College’s biggest prize.
Mr. Trump could lose Arizona, Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin and still punch his ticket to the White House with a win in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania will be front and center again next week.
Ms. Harris is expected to introduce her running mate at a campaign event in Philadelphia.
That backdrop has added to the speculation that Ms. Harris is poised to lock arms with Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Mr. Shapiro, a 51-year-old married father of four, served as a state lawmaker, county commissioner and attorney general before cruising to a nearly 15-point win over his Trump-backed rival in the 2022 gubernatorial race.
Mr. Shapiro has proven to be a skilled communicator and is widely popular in the state, including with independent voters.
Trump surrogates, however, are less impressed.
Rep. Lloyd Smucker, who represents the Lancaster area, said Mr. Shapiro has done “diddly squat” for Pennsylvania and been brainwashed by progressives at the state Capitol.
“We know what a Harris-Shapiro ticket would mean: More money to line the pockets of the Hollywood elite, illegals flooding the border, soaring gas prices and soaring grocery bills,” Mr. Smucker said.
Before the race shake-up in the wake of Mr. Biden’s disastrous debate performance, Mr. Trump had held a consistent lead over the Scranton-born Democrat in Pennsylvania and in most of the swing states.
That, however, has changed in recent days.
A Susquehanna Polling & Research survey released this week showed Ms. Harris with a 4-point lead over Mr. Trump in Pennsylvania. A Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll showed Mr. Trump up two points, and a Fox News poll gave Ms. Harris a slight edge.
Mr. Trump and his allies are betting Ms. Harris’ moment in the sun will pass and are doing their part by hammering home the message that she owns Mr. Biden’s failures, particularly on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Trump campaign started airing a television ad in Pennsylvania this week attacking Ms. Harris’ failed record as the Biden administration’ “border czar.”
“Kamala Harris: failed, weak, dangerously liberal,” the narrator says in the ad, which blames her for ignoring millions of immigrants jumping the border illegally and migrant crime.
Ms. Harris countered with an ad of her own, blaming Mr. Trump for blocking an immigration bill that would have increased the number of Border Patrol agents and directed more taxpayer money toward stopping the flow of fentanyl and human trafficking.
“Kamala Harris prosecuted transnational gang members and got them sentenced to prison, Trump is trying to avoid being sentenced to prison,” the narrator says. “There are two choices in this election, the one who will fix our broken immigration system and the one who is trying to stop her.”
In 2016, Mr. Trump defeated Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania by less than a percentage point, marking the first time a Republican had carried the state since 1988.
“Trump was able to win Pennsylvania by making dramatic gains over past Republican nominees in historically Democratic-leaning small and midsized working-class towns and cities,” said Christopher Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion.
Mr. Trump flipped reliably blue counties — including Northampton, Luzerne, and Erie — and ran up the score in the state’s rural counties.
In 2020, Mr. Biden won the state by just over a percentage point against Mr. Trump after outperforming Mrs. Clinton in the industrial cities and towns and in the Philadelphia suburbs.
The area around Harrisburg, meanwhile, is Trump-friendly territory.
“They are coming for us,” Rep. Scott Perry, a Trump loyalist who represents the area in Congress, warned the crowd here Wednesday. “The question I have for you is: Have you had enough?”
“This is ground zero,” Mr. Perry said. “We are not going to let Harris win!”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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