Kamala Harris and Tim Walz tour western Pennsylvania a day before the DNC begins

Air Force Two landed at Pittsburgh International Airport on Sunday when hefty rain began to fall. Vice President Kamala Harris stepped off the plane minutes later as the clouds cleared, to the delight of Democratic voters who had waited two hours to welcome her and her vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, to the city.

Stop it meant the beginning a quick trip around the West Pennsylvania the day before The Democratic National Convention begins Monday in Chicago.

Harris and Walz whipped up enthusiasm among party supporters by taking photos with the campaign, then boarded radiant blue buses with their names printed on them and headed to nearby Beaver County, where volunteers from the red county were preparing to knock on doors on behalf of the campaign.

“This campaign will be won in rooms like this all across the country,” Walz told volunteers.

The visit is the first of a swing-state tour the campaign has planned for DNC week. But the decision to start in western Pennsylvania underscores the importance of the region, especially Pittsburgh and its suburbs, to the Democratic Party, which won the state in 2020 in part because of mighty turnout in Allegheny County.

The region also holds strategic and symbolic significance for former President Donald Trump. It is home to working-class voters whose support he needs to win the state, and it took on particular significance when Trump held his final rally before the Republican National Convention in Butler County and survived an assassination attempt. Many in Trump’s base viewed the shooting as evidence of divine intervention that allowed Trump to survive and win the election. He said he plans to return to the county for a second rally.

In addition to narrowing Trump’s lead in Republican counties surrounding Pittsburgh, it will be crucial for Democrats to dominate the city and its suburbs.

“If they don’t vote here, they don’t win Pennsylvania, and if they don’t win Pennsylvania, you don’t win the country,” said Eric Stern, a Democratic strategist in western Pennsylvania who worked on Sen. John Fetterman’s 2022 campaign.

Speaking to volunteers in Beaver County, which Trump won by 17 points in 2020, Harris and Walz focused less on politics and more on unity. Harris tried to draw a contrast between her message and Trump’s without ever mentioning her opponent by name.

“This campaign is about recognizing that, quite frankly, there’s been a kind of perversion over the last few years to suggest that the measure of a leader is who you beat down,” Harris said. “We know that the true measure of a leader’s strength is who you lift up.”

Although Harris is unlikely to win in Beaver County, Tina Aquino, a county committeewoman, said she saw an opportunity to limit Trump’s gains. Before Biden left the race, Aquino said, she was one of a handful of volunteers knocking on doors. Now there are dozens.

“I haven’t seen enthusiasm like this since the Obama years,” she said.

Biden won Pittsburgh decisively in 2020 and won surrounding cities by smaller margins. And two years later, Fetterman edged Biden as Allegheny County cast 67,000 more votes than Philadelphia County despite having 133,000 fewer voters, likely a sign of the former Braddock mayor’s appeal to working- and middle-class voters and an unusually mighty runoff election for Democrats in Pennsylvania.

Democratic Party leaders are expected to address those voters at the Chicago DNC. The first day of the DNC will focus on portraying Harris and Walz as “fighting for ordinary Americans.” But it is unclear whether Harris, a black and South Asian prosecutor from California, will be able to win the same support among white, working-class voters in western Pennsylvania. which Fetterman liked. In the latest Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos The poll, which shows Harris slightly ahead of Trump in a head-to-head race, still trails Trump in support among white voters without a college degree. The poll also found that the economy and inflation remain the top two issues for voters, and voters trust Trump more on those issues.

Still, voters greeting Harris at the airport, many of them union members, showed an enthusiasm that was missing during Harris’ six visits to Pennsylvania when she was vice president and vice presidential nominee for President Joe Biden. last year.

Many attendees expressed appreciation for Harris’s policies on women’s reproductive rights and the economy.

Greg Bernarding, business manager for the Pittsburgh Regional Building and Construction Trades Council, said he hopes Harris and Walz will continue to grow Pennsylvania’s energy industry and continue the Biden administration’s momentum.

“Since Biden took office, he has done more for working men and women in construction and trade than any other president,” he said.

Union members represent a bloc of working-class voters, and both campaigns are looking to win them over.

In a statement released Sunday, Trump’s spokesman lashed out at Harris for failing to hold a news conference or give an interview since winning the Democratic nomination, saying she should be held accountable for the Biden administration’s actions on inflation and the border.

“And while Kamala has not and does not intend to answer unscripted questions anytime soon, Pennsylvanians know not to believe her lies, manipulation and gaslighting,” said Kush Desai, a campaign spokesman.

The Trump campaign has indicated plans to utilize Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s vice presidential nominee, to appeal to those same voters in western Pennsylvania. The Ohio senator is expected to spend much of his time in Pennsylvania this cycle, hoping his working-class roots will appeal to voters in the region. Last week, Vance stopped in Westmoreland County, just outside Pittsburgh.

Harris supporters have dismissed the idea that Vance, who launched his political career after writing a memoir about growing up in a working-class Ohio family, would prove effective with Pennsylvania voters.

And Natalya Rodriguez, vice president of the Service Employees International Union branch at Allegheny General Hospital, said Vance could talk to some Pennsylvanians. But she said the Trump campaign’s tax proposals would hurt her ability to attract working-class voters.

“I understand that changes need to be made, but you are going to destroy the way of life of the workers that you want to fight for,” Rodriguez said of Trump’s agenda.

Both campaigns are fully aware of the importance Pennsylvania will have for the entire country.

“They say if you win Pennsylvania, you win everything,” Trump said at a rally in Wilkes-Barre on Saturday. “We can’t let these people win Pennsylvania.”

In a meandering speech Saturday, Trump attacked Harris for taking an anti-fracking stance in her 2019 presidential campaign, falsely claimed that polls showed him ahead in Pennsylvania and argued that Harris snubbed Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro in favor of Walz as her running mate “because he’s Jewish.”

Trump will return to Pennsylvania on Monday to speak to media in York County. Vance will visit Philadelphia that same day.