The former president will be meeting in Scranton, Joe Biden’s hometown, located in one of the most contested states in the November 5 presidential election: Pennsylvania. On site, the Republican candidate intends to bludgeon the Democrats over “their inflationary policies” and “their disastrous management” of the migration situation, according to information released by his campaign team. Two favorite themes of the billionaire, who paints, meeting after meeting, an extremely dark picture of an America ravaged according to him by migrants, galloping inflation and devastating self-righteousness.
After teasing Joe Biden in Scranton, the industrial city in the northeastern United States that the Democratic president calls himself, Donald Trump will organize an additional campaign event in Pennsylvania in the afternoon. The Republican candidate and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris are combing every nook and cranny of this state, which is probably the most coveted in the election. And for good reason: in the United States, the presidential election is played by indirect universal voting, with each State allocating a number of electors to a candidate.
« Swing states ». Some are clearly committed to the cause of the Democrats, such as California or New York, or to the Republicans, such as Alabama or Wyoming. The election is therefore really decided in states which do not clearly lean towards one party or another – which the Americans call “swing states”. Pennsylvania corresponds to this category: Donald Trump won there by a narrow margin in 2016 and Joe Biden came close in 2020. Many blue-collar workers in this state in the northeast of the country, in industrial decline, were leave the Democratic ship to join Trump.
But Kamala Harris is counting on the major infrastructure projects launched by Joe Biden, creating jobs, and the support of unions to win them back. The Democratic candidate will be in Pennsylvania again next Monday, after a meeting on Thursday with one of the Democratic Party’s best emissaries, former President Barack Obama. The American vice-president is also holding campaign events in Arizona and Nevada – two other extremely contested states for the election.
The two candidates remain neck and neck in the polls, despite a series of unprecedented twists and turns in this campaign: the criminal conviction of Donald Trump, two assassination attempts targeting him, the withdrawal of current President Joe Biden and the entry of Kamala Harris into the race. The two candidates for the White House are plowing the ground day after day to conquer the votes of undecided people to tip the scales. According to the US Elections Project, however, some 2.5 million voters have already made their choice, slipping a ballot into the box during early voting operations.
Camille CAMDESSUS
© Agence France-Presse
