Six days have passed since Biden last campaigned in the state, but that seems like a long time for an administration that relies on Pennsylvania for its presidential elections. With just over five months until the 2024 general election, both parties are stepping up efforts to encourage voter participation across the battleground state.
Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have campaigned in the state this year, with more expected in the near future, but even as candidates from both parties were out of the state this week, there was no end to the buzz surrounding the candidates and their campaigns — and not just from the two major parties.
City & State brings you Friday's Top 5 News stories, bringing you the latest on Pennsylvania's presidential campaign.
FLOTUS makes a pit stop at Pittsburgh Pride
To kick off June, First Lady Jill Biden visited Pittsburgh and Erie on Saturday to show her support for the LGBTQ community. At a Pride celebration on Pittsburgh's north side, Biden said, “It shouldn't take courage to hold someone's hand on the bus, to kiss someone goodbye on the sidewalk, to love the person you love. It shouldn't be that way, but in many places it still is.”
Biden also called Republican lawmakers and Trump a “danger” to the LGBTQ community, and reiterated her husband's support for protecting the rights of those in the community. “Your president loves you,” she said.
Trump opens store in Northeast Philadelphia
The Trump campaign also made inroads in Philadelphia this week, with surrogates hosting networking events with black voters and opening a new campaign office in Northeast Philadelphia. But the “Black Americans for Trump” effort drew some backlash for opening an office in a conservative, predominantly white part of the city. Rep. Byron Donald, a Florida Republican and vice presidential candidate who is a Trump campaign surrogate, also drew ire in the black community when he said that “black families stayed together during the Jim Crow era.”
RFK Jr.
Independent and third-party candidates seeking president in Pennsylvania must gather at least 5,000 signatures on their nominating petitions, but the campaign of independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confident it can gather the signatures needed to appear on the ballot.
“The campaign has volunteers who have begun collecting signatures to get on the ballot for candidate Kennedy Shanahan in Pennsylvania,” a campaign spokesperson told City & State in an email. “We expect to collect more than 5,000 signatures by the August 1 deadline to ensure our nomination in Pennsylvania.”
Recent presidential polls have Kennedy's approval rating in Pennsylvania at 7% to 10%. A late May poll by Florida Atlantic University and Main Street Research put him at 8%.
Jill Stein
Stein's campaign is again trying to get on the presidential ballot in Pennsylvania, with campaign officials saying this week that they are on the verge of appearing on the ballot. The Stein campaign announced that they are a few hundred votes away from collecting the 5,000 signatures needed to get on the presidential ballot by the August 1 deadline.
Pennsylvania Green Party Executive Director Alex Casper said the party plans to exceed the signature requirement and gather about 10,000 signatures by July 27.
Congressional staff booed at the state Capitol
The effects of the 2020 presidential election are still being felt in Pennsylvania. On January 6, 2021, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives planned to hold a ceremony to honor two police officers who had protected the U.S. Capitol, but some Republican members reportedly heckled the crowd and walked out of the chamber.
The case has garnered national attention from The Hill, The Washington Post, MSNBC and others, and shows that the 2020 presidential election and the false claims of widespread election fraud that have circulated since then are still fresh in the minds of state lawmakers as the 2020 rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump approaches.
But House Minority Leader Brian Cutler, in a statement to The Hill, disputed the Democrats' portrayal of the day's events, noting that he met with House Republicans and took photos with them. Cutler added, according to The Hill, that Democrats “have demonstrated a pattern of antagonizing members of Congress and sowing division and discord for political and campaign purposes.”
