Donald Trump to rally in Reading, stop in Scranton as the race to win Pennsylvania continues
Voters can expect former President Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris, and their running mates to frequent Pennsylvania even more in the final days before the Nov. 5 election.
Former President Donald Trump will make two stops in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, including hosting one of his signature campaign rallies in Reading, as the race to win the battleground state continues.
Trump will deliver remarks in Scranton on Wednesday before heading to Reading for the rally, his campaign announced.
Cities like Reading and Scranton represent crucial battlegrounds within the swing state that Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris must win to capture Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes — and likely win the presidency.
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Reading is an area where Trump has made inroads with Latino voters. In Reading and other majority-Latino cities in Pennsylvania, Republican votes grew more than Democratic votes between the 2016 and 2020 elections, according to an analysis by The Inquirer. Scranton, President Joe Biden’s hometown, is also an area of the state where the Trump campaign is seeking to capture votes, as both of the candidates fight for the support of white working-class voters in former manufacturing towns once controlled by Democrats that continue shifting red.
Both presidential campaigns have already made weekly stops in Pennsylvania — the swing state with the most electoral votes. Voters can expect Trump, Harris, and their running mates to frequent Pennsylvania even more in the final 28 days before the Nov. 5 election.
“They say that if you win Pennsylvania, you’re going to win the whole thing,” Trump told a crowd in Wilkes-Barre in August.
Trump was last in Pennsylvania on Saturday when he returned to Butler, holding a rally at the site where he was shot in the ear during a July assassination attempt. Supporters came from as far as Japan, but many were native Pennsylvanians still healing from witnessing the July shooting, where one rally-goer was killed and two others were seriously injured. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, was also in Pennsylvania last week, trying to make the case to rural voters in York County to support the Harris ticket, as well as visiting a Puerto Rican restaurant in Reading.
According to the Trump campaign, Trump’s remarks in Scranton will be focused on inflation and increased cost of living, saying only another Trump administration “will put the American Worker first and Make America Wealthy and Great Again.”
Trump’s rally Wednesday night in Reading at the Santander Arena will focus on Harris’ time as vice president, including her handling of migration at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the campaign.
In anticipation of Trump’s visit, the Harris campaign said in a statement that “Pennsylvanians know Donald Trump doesn’t look out for the middle class, he only fights for himself.”
“While Trump cares about himself and billionaires, we know who will stand up for Pennsylvania families and our freedoms: Kamala Harris,” said Onotse Omoyeni, the Pennsylvania rapid response director for Harris.