LANCASTER— In his first solo visit to Pennsylvania since joining the Democratic presidential ticket, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz campaigned in Lancaster County on Wednesday, visiting a campaign office to talk with volunteers and make some phone calls to voters.
“I think everyone in this room, it’s no exaggeration to say that this election could depend on this county and this field office and the people that we send there,” Walz told campaign volunteers. “It’s an incredible responsibility, but it’s also an incredible opportunity.”
Walz spent about 30 minutes in the field office thanking volunteers for their work to support the campaign and talking about issues that concern voters during the election.
“We’re here first and foremost to say thank you,” Walz said. “The energy you feel in this room is all over the country.”
Walz said he and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, support policies that would improve people’s lives, citing access to reproductive and health care, good public schools, building infrastructure and creating jobs that pay a living wage as examples.
He said he believes the Republican Party’s presidential slate, consisting of former President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), presents a different vision of America, one that is negative.
“My God, every time I hear Donald Trump speak, it’s like another Mad Max script or something,” Walz said, drawing laughter from the audience. “They’re rooting for America, they don’t believe in the exceptionalism of this country, they don’t believe in the people who built this country, they just want to complain about them, and the fact that you come here and talk to each other like neighbors inspires people.”
In addition to being Walz’s first solo campaign trip to Pennsylvania, Wednesday is also the first time a Democratic or Republican candidate will appear in Lancaster County in 2024.
According to US Census 2020Lancaster County has the sixth-largest population of the state’s 67 counties. Trump won Lancaster in both 2016 and 2020, the largest county in Pennsylvania in which he did so. During Trump’s first successful run for the White House, he won Lancaster County, 20 points over Hillary Clinton and defeated Joe Biden in 2020. 16 points.
Lancaster County has traditionally been safely conservative, but Democrats see a chance there to gain an advantage in the 2024 election. Gov. Josh Shapiro and U.S. Sen. John Fetterman narrowed the Republican lead in the county in the election Elections 2022 and state judicial candidates still had little chance of winning in 2023.
“I know turnout for governor and president can be a little different, but when you look at these types of numbers, it makes sense to invest in Lancaster County,” Stella Sexton, vice chair of the Lancaster County Democratic Committee, told the Capital-Star.
The Harris-Waltz campaign, which has 50 offices across the Communityhas two offices in the county, opening the first in Lancaster in March, the earliest a Democratic presidential campaign has done so, according to the campaign. They recently opened a campaign office in Ephrata, which is in a more rural region of Lancaster County.
Sexton also highlighted Democrats’ attempts to court Republicans who supported former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in the GOP presidential primary. Haley I received 20% votes in Lancaster County, even though she had already ended her campaign for the White House.
“That’s why we’re looking at Lancaster County as a place where we can increase our margins everywhere,” Sexton told the Capital-Star. “We think there are a lot of malleable Republicans who are not happy with Donald Trump.”
The Trump campaign criticized Walz’s visit to Lancaster in a press release Wednesday. “There is no way he or Kamala will change the fact that Lancaster County is Trump country,” Trump spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement.
Walz was joined at the campaign office by his daughter Hope. He also brought apple cider doughnuts and whoopie pies, which purchased at Cherry Hill Orchards in Lancaster County.
Walz joked that Pennsylvania and Minnesota have a lot in common, though he added that “Super Bowl rings aren’t one of them.”
At the beginning of his brief speech, Walz said he had been informed about Georgia school shooting that left four people dead on Wednesday, calling the situation “tragic” and “all too common” and taking steps to prevent such shootings in the future.
“Our hearts are there right now,” Walz said.
Nikki RiveraThe Manheim Township School Board president and candidate for the 96th District of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, met with Walz at her campaign office. They talked briefly about the importance of state legislative races, and she thanked him for his experience as a teacher, Rivera said.
“I told him how inspiring he is because I’m also a high school teacher and a GSA advisor where I teach, and I said, ‘What you’re doing is very inspiring, you’re bringing all kinds of people into it and that’s what we should be doing in this country,’” Rivera told the Capital-Star. “I thanked him for that.”
Rivera said she hears about education funding most often when talking to voters in the district she wants to represent, while Sexton said she hears about reproductive rights most often in Lancaster County.
Walz did not take questions from media during a visit to his Lancaster office. He then traveled to Pittsburgh for a “political engagement,” according to the campaign.
Walz is not the only candidate from both slates who will be in the Keystone State on Wednesday. In the evening, there were President Donald Trump is set to appear at Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg to tape a “with the locals” event for Fox News hosted by Sean Hannity.
Harris will return to Pittsburgh on Thursday, just three days after Performing with President Joe Biden at Steel City on Labor Day.
Harris and Trump will face off next week in Philadelphia in a debate broadcast on ABC News.
This Cook Political Report assesses the presidential race for Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes as uncertain.
