PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - MAY 29: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris introduces U.S. President Joe Biden during a campaign rally at Girard College on May 29, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Biden and Harris are using today's rally to launch a nationwide campaign to court black voters, a group that has traditionally come out in favor of Biden, but their support is projected lower than it was in 2020. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

PHILADELPHIA — For the first time this year in Pennsylvania, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris participated in a campaign event together, in the battleground state’s biggest city. The joint appearance at Girard College announcing the launch of Black Voters for Biden-Harris underscores the importance of Black voters to the Biden-Harris campaign, a crucial voting bloc that helped the ticket win Pennsylvania in 2020.

“In 2024, with your voice and your power, we will win again,” Harris told the audience Wednesday. “We beat Donald Trump once and we’re going to do it again.”

Biden and Harris were joined at the event by Black leaders including Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Congressional Black Caucus Chairperson U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, and Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker.

“Hello Philadelphia,” Biden said to chants of “four more years” from the audience. “It’s good to be almost home.”

Biden echoed Harris, crediting Black Americans for his victory in 2020 and said with their vote they will “make Donald Trump a loser again.”

Biden and Harris touted their administration’s efforts on a wide range of issues including passing an infrastructure law, passing a law addressing gun violence, lowering healthcare costs, canceling student loan debt, and appointing progressive judges to the courts.

Both of them slammed former President Donald Trump for attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act during his time in office, appointing Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, passing his tax reform law, and for questioning former President Barack Obama’s citizenship.

Following the speech at Girard College, Biden traveled a few blocks to South Restaurant, according to pool reports, to attend a small business event with the Black Chamber of Commerce.

Lt. Gov. Austin Davis introduced Biden at the restaurant saying “the stakes of this election are just too damn high.”

Having the support of Black voters has been key for Democratic presidential tickets for decades. Biden said Black voters had placed “enormous faith in me” throughout his political career.

“I’ve tried to do my best to honor that trust,” he said Wednesday.

In 2020, Pennsylvania exit polling shows 92% of Black voters supported Biden’s candidacy, while 7% voted for former President Donald Trump, the presumptive 2024 GOP nominee. However, recent polling finds that Biden does not appear to be garnering that same level of support this cycle, potentially putting his reelection bid in danger in Pennsylvania and beyond.

To that end, the campaign has renewed its focus on courting Black voters. Harris gave the keynote address to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) convention in Philadelphia last week, as the group elected its first Black woman president.

Earlier this month, Biden delivered the commencement address at Morehouse College in Georgia, a historically Black college. He pledged to continue supporting HBCUs, touting that during his administration, the federal funding for HBCUs has surpassed $16 billion.

And both the Biden and Trump campaigns have aired ads focused on Black voters in battleground states, including Pennsylvania. As early as last fall, the Biden-Harris campaign was running ads in swing states focused on Black voters, part of a $25 million campaign in key battleground states.

The Trump campaign has taken a slightly different approach, according to a campaign spokesperson.

“President Trump’s outreach to minority voters is straightforward: he shows up, listens, and makes it clear that we’ll be better off with him as President, just like we were four years ago,” Janiyah Thomas, the Trump campaign’s director of Black Media, told the Capital Star in an email. “Team Trump’s outreach to minority communities is a stark contrast to Joe Biden’s failing campaign whose only tactic is to gaslight minority voters with desperate ads and pandering speeches that fail to address Biden’s terrible policies.”

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia) is on the Biden-Harris National Advisory Board and has campaigned for the ticket across Pennsylvania, as well as in South Carolina and Wisconsin.

“The President’s consistent outreach is about treating people with respect, not telling them they have to vote, making a case for why they can vote,” Kenyatta told the Capital-Star. “I’m beyond confident that he and the Vice President are more than capable of doing that, and that we’re going to be successful in large part because this president has a record of success and Donald Trump only has a record of cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans.”

Biden last appeared in Philadelphia at the end of a weeklong swing through three Pennsylvania cities in April, ahead of the state’s primary election. He received the endorsement of several members of the Kennedy family at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center in North Philadelphia. During that visit, he discussed sitting behind the resolute desk and having busts of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., saying he thinks of what they would do in difficult situations.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Biden volunteered at Philadelphia food bank Philabundance alongside Mayor Cherelle Parker,  the third time he’s visited there on the holiday since winning the presidential election in 2020.  Also this year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, several Pennsylvania elected officials including Gov. Josh Shapiro and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey were at Girard College for what is described as the nation’s largest Day of Service event honoring King’s legacy.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, who helped propel Biden to victory in the Palmetto State’s primary election in 2020, has campaigned for the Biden-Harris ticket in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh this year, in an effort to boost support among Black voters. Clyburn is widely credited with helping Biden clinch the Democratic nomination in 2020, as the influential Congressman was an early endorser of Biden’s campaign.

Wednesday is Biden’s eighth visit to Pennsylvania this cycle. This is Harris’s fifth visit to the state in 2024, four of them in the southeast.

During Harris’s speech in Philadelphia last week, there were chants of “Free Palestine” from some members of audience. While there were no similar chants from the crowd during Wednesday’s appearance, a local elected official in attendance said the ongoing Israel-Hamas War in Gaza could affect Biden’s chances of securing a second term.

Philadelphia City Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke, who delivered the Working Families Party’s response to Biden’s State of the Union address in March, said compared to Trump, Biden is the best candidate on issues like women’s reproductive rights and voting rights. But O’Rourke added he believes Biden’s response to the war could cost him.

“As a citizen of the United States, and as someone who does not want to see a second Trump term, it’s important, it is incumbent upon the president to heed the calls of the people,” O’Rourke told reporters Wednesday. “Obviously, continue to do the good things that are being done, but there must be a meaningful response on the constant loud cries to see a cessation of violence and peace.”

Trump has made three visits to Pennsylvania so far in 2024, appearing in Philadelphia once, to announce a new line of Trump-branded sneakers. Although Trump hasn’t visited the Keystone State since his April rally in the Lehigh Valley, he rallied supporters in Wildwood, New Jersey earlier this month before an audience with plenty of Pennsylvanians in attendance.

The latest polling shows Trump with a slight edge over Biden, and with U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) holding a narrow lead over Republican challenger David McCormick.

Casey was in attendance for the rally on Wednesday. McCormick was scheduled to participate in a “fireside chat” in the Lehigh Valley hosted by Moms for Liberty, with former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and Twitter.

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Former President Donald Trump speaks during his campaign rally on the beach in Wildwood, Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Tim Hawk for New Jersey Monitor)

WILDWOOD, NJ — The Garden State is not often in the national spotlight for a presidential election, but former President Donald Trump brought his campaign to the Jersey Shore on Saturday.

“As you can see, today, we’re expanding the electoral maps because we are going to officially play in the state of New Jersey. We’re going to win the state of New Jersey,” Trump told the crowd, standing on a stage before a backdrop of carnival rides. “Millions of people in so-called blue states are joining our movement based on love, intelligence and a thing called common sense.”

Trump began Saturday’s rally more than an hour after his scheduled 5 p.m. start time, and spoke for about 90 minutes. During his remarks, he touched on familiar topics, like his hush-money trial in New York, where this week adult film star Stormy Daniels testified about an alleged sexual encounter, which Trump has denied.  He also repeated unfounded claims that the 2020 election was “rigged.”

Trump made several local references as well; he invited New Jersey GOP U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew on stage, calling him a “star,” and took multiple jabs at former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and current Gov. Phil Murphy. 

A little over one mile away from Trump’s speech, TalkRadio 1210 WPHT Philadelphia, a conservative talk radio station, hosted a watch party at Mulligan’s Shore Bar and Grill. Rich Zeoli, afternoon host at the station, said that the crowd of about 200 people was evenly split between New Jersey and Pennsylvania residents.

He said Trump’s comments relating to the economy received the most positive response.

“I think when he talked about grocery prices, when he talked about the price of food, I think the economy is still the issue, I really do, more than anything,” Zeoli said. “It’s going to be the issue that drives everybody.”

He added that Trump’s comments bashing wind turbines also drew a very positive reaction from the crowd, saying it’s an energy-related issue that is relevant to both New Jersey residents and Pennsylvanians who vacation in the area.

Trump has criticized mail-in voting over the past few years, but urged those in attendance to embrace it, even though he still referred to it as “corrupt.” Trump said “election season” begins on September 16 due to early voting, but added if he wins a second term, he wants to have one day of voting with paper ballots, proof of citizenship, and voter ID.During Trump’s most recent visit in Pennsylvania one month ago, he made no mention of abortion. On Saturday, he thanked the six Supreme Court justices — three of whom he appointed — who ruled on the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. He described abortion as a “very divided issue,” but said the decision to leave it back to the states is the correct decision.Trump has often criticized Biden over his administration’s economic policies, but spent a great deal of time driving home the issue on Saturday.

“On day one we will throw out Bidenomics and reinstate MAGAnomics,” he said. Trump also took issue with Biden’s commitment to phasing out the 2017 tax reform legislation that was signed during his administration. Biden has hit Trump over this policy on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania.A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Trump bemoaned what he called “riots” at his alma mater. On Friday morning, Philadelphia police disbanded a two-week long encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters. Although Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro called for the disbandment and said the situation was “out of control,” there were no reports of riots at the university.

Over the past several weeks, Trump has largely been sidelined from campaigning by the trial in New York.

Saturday was Trump’s first rally in New Jersey in 2024, but he’s campaigned in the state in previous cycles. In January 2020, Trump held a rally in Wildwood’s Convention Center and blasted Democrats for their effort to impeach him.

Carrying New Jersey is not likely for Trump, according to national outlets like the Cook Political Report which rates the state as “solid Democratic.” New Jersey has not voted for a Republican candidate for president since 1988 and Trump lost the state by double digits both times he was his party’s nominee for president. 

However, an Emerson College poll matching Biden and Trump against each other conducted in late March showed Biden only leading Trump by 7 points in New Jersey, while 15% of those polled were undecided. Biden led Trump by 5 points when that poll included third party candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Jill Stein, and Cornel West. It remains to be seen which third-party candidates will make the ballot in New Jersey.

Zeoli said he thinks it was a strategic move to hold the rally at the Jersey shore in order to include multiple media markets. He added the location may also have been a way for Trump to thank Van Drew, who switched parties during the previous election cycle and backed Trump’s candidacy.

Ahead of Trump’s Saturday visit, the Biden campaign held a call with reporters Friday, featuring New Jersey Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill. She blasted Trump’s business record in New Jersey.

“I suspect that when Trump holds that rally in Wildwood, you will see a lot of people coming from outside our state because here inside our state, we know that Trump filed for bankruptcy five times,” Sherrill said. “That he really undermined the economic viability of Atlantic City, that he didn’t pay workers, he didn’t pay contractors, he had small businesses going out of business because of his failed promises.”

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and Twitter.

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Republican U.S. presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks at the National Rifle Association presidential forum at the Great American Outdoor Show on February 09, 2024 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. (Capital-Star photo by Peter Hall)

Speaking at the National Rifle Association’s annual outdoor recreation show Friday in Harrisburg, former President Donald Trump delivered a simple but powerful message to a crowd of thousands of shooting and hunting enthusiasts.

“Your Second Amendment will always be safe with me as your president,” Trump said in his first 2024 appearance in Pennsylvania. “When I’m back in the Oval Office, no one will lay a finger on your firearms. Not gonna happen.”

In his familiar rambling and digressive style, Trump jumped from topic to topic – immigration, energy, electric cars, the poor quality of highway medians in the nation’s capital – but returned to Second Amendment rights and gun ownership a number of times during the 80-minute speech.

Trump told the audience that he appointed hundreds of federal judges, whom he characterized as “conservative originalists” to “interpret the Constitution as written.” And he warned that another Biden administration would mean hundreds of “radical left judges waging a crusade against law abiding gun owners.”

He reminded the crowd that he had reopened millions of acres of federal lands for hunting and fishing and during the pandemic declared gun and ammunition sellers to be critical infrastructure not subject to closure orders.

And Trump claimed credit for the pivotal 2022 Supreme Court decision that established a new test for the constitutionality of state gun regulations saying his administration petitioned to overturn New York’s requirements to carry a concealed weapon.

“I can tell you that the only thing standing between you and the obliteration of your under-siege Second Amendment is me,” Trump said.

Fresh off a symbolic victory in the Nevada caucus on Thursday, Trump emphasized the importance of Pennsylvania in this year’s presidential election. And with primary victories in Iowa, New Hampshire in his pocket, Trump appeared to skip over Pennsylvania’s primary, still more than 10 weeks away without mentioning his sole remaining opponent, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

“If you live in this Commonwealth, register everyone you know and get them out to vote,” Trump said. “We have to win in November, or we’re not going to have Pennsylvania. They’ll change the name.”

It wasn’t totally clear what Trump was referring to, but in January, a proposal by the National Park Service to remove a statue of William Penn from Welcome Park in Philadelphia was scuttled after Republican lawmakers protested.

On Friday night, Trump acknowledged U.S. Reps. Dan Meuser (R-9th District), Scott Perry (R-10th District), Guy Reschenthaler (R-14th District), and Lloyd Smucker (R-11th District), who were in the audience.

He also falsely claimed two electoral victories in Pennsylvania. Although he won the state by a narrow margin in 2016, Biden narrowly edged out Trump to flip the state back to blue.

“We ran twice, we won Pennsylvania twice,” Trump said. “We did much better the second time than we did the first time. It’s interesting, isn’t it?”

During Trump’s 2020 campaign, he often talked about his support for fracking and attempted to paint Biden as an enemy to Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry. He returned to the theme on Friday.

On Jan. 26, the Biden administration announced a temporary pause on approvals of new liquified natural gas exports to countries without a free trade agreement with the United States. Pennsylvania lawmakers expressed concern about the move’s ramifications for a plan to export gas from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale fields from a port near Philadelphia.

“We will reverse the Biden ban on natural gas exports,” Trump said. “We will end his war on American energy and we will unleash Pennsylvania oil and natural gas at a level never seen before.”

Trump also criticized the recent proposed sale of Pennsylvania-based U.S. Steel to Japan.

“Pennsylvania steel was poured into the backbone of our country. And now, U.S. Steel was just sold to Japan,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t approve that deal.”

In late December, Biden’s administration said that the proposed sale to Japan “deserves serious scrutiny.”

Trump claimed that he talked with a few Pennsylvania voters who said he is more popular in the state today than he was during the previous elections and that they said he was “gonna blow Pennsylvania away.”

“That’s what I think is going to happen,” Trump said, about his chances to carry the commonwealth in 2024.

Pennsylvania polling shows Biden and Trump neck and neck in a hypothetical rematch for the Keystone State.

Friday’s event was the third time Trump has spoken in Pennsylvania since he announced his reelection campaign. He spoke at a Moms for Liberty rally inPhiladelphia in June, and appeared in Erie in July.

With 19 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is regarded as a must-win state for a successful presidential candidate.

And although Dauphin County, where the state capital lies, went for the Democratic nominee in the last two presidential elections, it is an island of blue in a sea of red rural counties on electoral maps.

“To win Pennsylvania he has to really gin up his base. He has to make sure that people in rural areas are engaged,” Berwood Yost, director of the Franklin & Marshall College Center for Opinion Research, told the Capital-Star.

The decision to speak at the NRA’s Great Outdoor Show, billed as the largest in the nation, is logical, Yost said, because it draws shooting and hunting enthusiasts from across rural Pennsylvania and beyond.

“If he can talk about freedom and liberty through the lens of the Second Amendment it makes perfect sense for being here,” Yost said.

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and Twitter.

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