Trump to rally in Wilkes-Barre on Saturday
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump walks onstage at a rally on July 31, 2024 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Republican nominee former President Donald Trump will return to Pennsylvania for a rally on Aug. 17, two days before the Democratic National Convention is set to kick off in Chicago.
“Hard-working Americans are suffering because of the Harris-Biden Administration’s dangerously liberal policies and radical Democrats are failing the Keystone State,” according to a press release from the Trump campaign promoting the event.
Saturday’s rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre will be Trump’s seventh visit to the Keystone State in 2024, but his first in Northeast Pennsylvania. Trump appeared July 31 for a rally in Harrisburg, which was his first visit to the state following the assassination attempt during a rally in Butler on July 13.
The Harris campaign noted how Trump lost Pennsylvania in 2020, just four years after he flipped the state red, and criticized his positions on the economy and reproductive rights.
“Pennsylvanians don’t want to go back to the failure, chaos, and division of Donald Trump,” said Onotse Omoyeni, Pennsylvania Rapid Response director for Harris for President, in a press release in response to the Trump rally. “This latest visit will help remind voters why we rejected him last time and why we have to come together, work hard, and beat him again.”
Northeast Pennsylvania was in the spotlight for much of the 2020 campaign for the White House between then-President Trump and Joe Biden, whose childhood home of Scranton is in the region. Although Biden will no longer be at the top of the Democratic ticket, he is expected to deliver remarks at the Democratic National Convention two days after this rally. Biden also told CBS that he will campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, in Pennsylvania.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, held their first joint campaign rally in Philadelphia Aug. 6. On that same day, Trump’s running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, also held a campaign event in Philadelphia.
Harris and Trump are expected to face off for a debate hosted by ABC News in September.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick’s campaign confirmed to the Capital-Star that he will attend Saturday’s rally. He’s challenging U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), a Northeast Pennsylvania native and resident, in his bid for a fourth term.
The race between Harris and Trump for Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes is expected to be close, although a recent New York Times/Siena College poll shows Harris with a slight lead over Trump. The Cook Political Report rates the presidential race as a “toss-up” in Pennsylvania.
This article has been updated on 8-12-2024 at 8:38 p.m. to add comment from the Harris campaign.