PHILADELPHIA – Former President Donald Trump will return to the Keystone State for the first time in two months during a rally on June 22 in Philadelphia on the campus of Temple University.
“President Donald Trump loves the people of Pennsylvania,” reads a campaign press release announcing the rally. “President Trump will ease the financial pressure on households and restore law and order to Pennsylvania!”
This will be Trump’s fourth visit to the state in 2024 and second to Philadelphia this year. In February, he delivered the keynote speech at the National Rifle Association meeting in Harrisburg, announced a fresh line of Trump sneakers in Philadelphia at SneakerCon that same month, and most recently held a rally in the Lehigh Valley in April. In May, he also organized a rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, which was attended by a enormous proportion of Pennsylvanians.
President Joe Biden has made eight appearances in Pennsylvania this year, most recently traveling to Philadelphia with Vice President Kamala in overdue May to announce the launch of the Black Voters for Biden-Harris program at Girard College. Most of Biden’s visits have been to the Southeast, a largely Democratic region that is key to his presidential bid in the Keystone State.
Last month, Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in a secret money trial in New York. The verdict is scheduled for July 11, just days before the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
“Donald Trump is a convicted felon and a failed president who has spent years running racist campaigns, implementing a racist agenda, and harming Pennsylvania’s Black community at every opportunity,” Kellan White, senior adviser for the Pennsylvania Coordinated Democratic Campaign, said in a statement Friday. “That’s why we rejected him last time and gave the White House to Joe Biden, who actually fights for us and delivers results, lowering health care costs and creating good-paying jobs for our families here in Philadelphia.”
The Biden campaign also opened 24 coordinated offices across Pennsylvania, with the first round of offices opening in March, giving the Trump campaign an advantage. On June 4, the Trump campaign opened its first “Trump Force 47” office in Philadelphia and on Wednesday in Reading to reach Latin American voters.
Polls consistently show a tight race between Biden and Trump for the state’s 19 electoral votes. Marist survey released Wednesday showed Trump leading Biden by 2 points in Pennsylvania.
Biden defeated Trump in Pennsylvania in 2020 by just over 80,000 votes.
Update: This article has been updated with a statement from the Biden campaign.
