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Pennsylvania once again became the center of the political universe Saturday, hosting last-weekend midterm election rallies featuring American presidents past and present.
While President Joe Biden and predecessor Barack Obama fired up Democrats in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, ex-President Donald Trump exhorted Republicans in Latrobe to vote – mostly on behalf of candidates in a key U.S. Senate race, but also with eyes on the 2024 presidential race that could re-match Biden and Trump.
In a midterm election Tuesday that could shift the balance of power in Washington, the Democratic leaders urged voters to exercise their Constitutional right.
“Two years ago, you used that power to make Donald Trump not only a former president, but you made him a defeated president,” Biden told a crowd of cheering Philadelphia supporters who gathered at the Temple University basketball arena. “And this year, you have the power to make John Fetterman your next Senator.”
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A few hours later, and more than 250 miles away, Trump criticized Biden, attacked Fetterman, and talked up Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate candidate, doctor and television host Mehmet Oz – all the while dropping more hints that he will soon announce another campaign for the presidency in 2024.
“I’m not going to say it right now,” Trump said during a tarmac rally at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, but he told a screaming crowd that “you’re going to be so happy” very soon. “You’re going to be surprised at how soon.”
Trump told the crowd they need to elect Oz as part of a “giant red wave” on Election Day.
The Oz-Fetterman race could decide whether Republicans or Democrats control the U.S. Senate; Pennsylvania will also go a long way toward determining the presidential winner in 2024, just as it fueled the victories of Obama, Trump, and Biden.
Pennsylvania also features one of the premier gubernatorial races in the country, with Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano against Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Mastriano is a Trump loyalist who led calls for a 2020 audit and helped bus people to the Jan. 6, 2021 rally that turned into a riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“The abundance of competitive races in Pennsylvania make it coveted ground in this cycle,” said Christopher Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion. “And the party’s biggest names are here to do what they can to get some candidates across the line.”Biden: “I’ve lived in Pennsylvania longer than Oz”
In Philadelphia – home to the Phillies, fighting against a World Series loss – Biden and Obama argued that voting for Fetterman in the U.S. Senate and for other Democrats represents the crucial difference between women having the right to choose, maintaining voter integrity and generally keeping a path open to advancing a Democratic agenda.
