Kamala Harris' chances of winning the White House are getting progressively more fraught with each passing news cycle, and nowhere is that more evident than in Pennsylvania. It's a state that Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020 and is expected to be the state that decides it all in 2024.
RedState's Ward Clark did a thorough unpacking Wednesday of what's happening on the ground there for the two presidential candidates:
The most recent PA poll, conducted on Oct 9-13 by Rasmussen, has Donald Trump up by three points. The RCP average has him leading Kamala Harris by 0.3 points.
Any way you slice or dice it, it's looking to be another photo finish in the Keystone State. And that's why both campaigns are spending considerable time and resources there, with Elon Musk campaigning for Trump by giving a series of talks across the commonwealth, and Kamala bringing in an interesting cast of characters to help her out. More on that in just a minute.
But, first, Kamala is trying to put Tuesday's disastrous news cycle behind her by holding several events in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. One of those events is a rally in Bucks County, part of an effort by her campaign to sway Republican voters in the area in the hopes they will carry her across the finish line.
There's just one thing, as noted by one reporter on the scene: there's almost nobody there:
Despite seeing a plethora of Harris (and Trump) signs in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the @VP’s campaign event today is very small. pic.twitter.com/IDynRrEOCB
— Nikki Schwab (@NikkiSchwab) October 16, 2024
It's a quaint-looking setup, to be sure, but severely lacking butts in seats, which contrasts starkly to the massive turnouts Donald Trump gets at his Pennsylvania rallies.
And here's Kamala's ace in the pocket (scroll down):
Spotted: @gtconway3d seated front row. A number of former Republican lawmakers have been invited to show their support for @KamalaHarris pic.twitter.com/iIWlBTzpPR
— Nikki Schwab (@NikkiSchwab) October 16, 2024
Yup, she's trotting out Republican reject George Conway in the hopes of swaying "conservatives" to her side. Sure, there are many Republicans who, like the odious Conway, abandoned Donald Trump after he took over the GOP, but those voters left a long time ago; it's unlikely that there's a huge pool of disaffected Republican voters waiting to be swept up by Kamala Harris.
Nonetheless, Kamala presses on in a likely-futile search for said voters:
On Wednesday, Harris returns to Pennsylvania, this time with several high profile Republicans in tow, according to a senior campaign official who spoke anonymously to share planning for the upcoming event. It’s all part of the campaign’s efforts to engage with these voters and show that Republicans support the vice president, giving other conservative voters permission to do so, too.
As if campaigning with the likes of George Conway wasn't a clear sign of desperation, the news that she's pulling ad money out of Wisconsin and putting it into Pennsylvania surely is. One media insider noted, "Kamala Harris' campaign has dramatically pulled back local television advertising in the Milwaukee market and reallocating those resources to Philadelphia, where it is believed the campaign is deeply concerned about turnout and margins there."
Since Kamala Harris entered the presidential race back in July, she has spent in excess of $1 billion to lock up the votes needed to win, with the vast majority of her massive fundraising haul being spent in swing states like Pennsylvania. That's a monster investment in an effort that doesn't seem to be paying off; if she finds herself less than three weeks out from Election Day resorting to courting the George Conway wing of the Republican Party, which really no longer exists, she could be facing an unmitigated election disaster.
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