US elections: Pennsylvania emerges as must-win for both Harris, Trump

Washington: Pennsylvania, the state that played a vital role in the US War of Independence, has emerged as the ground zero for the 2024 presidential elections. Political experts feel that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump are headed for a cliffhanger in the state.

One needs 270 electoral college votes to win the presidential race and each of the 50 states in the US has a different number of electoral college votes. Pennsylvania has 19 while California, a Democratic bastion, has 54 electoral college votes, followed by Texas -- a Republican stronghold -- 40.

Given the political support in each state, experts have already figured out the number of electoral college votes going to a candidate based on past voting patterns, except for the seven battleground states.

These seven states are Nevada, which has six electoral college votes, Arizona (11), Wisconsin (10), Michigan (15), Pennsylvania (19), Georgia (16) and North Carolina (16).

With the fast-changing political dynamics, both the nominees now consider Pennsylvania a must-win. Thousands of volunteers from both Harris and Trump campaigns have arrived in this battleground state to convince the electorate to vote for their leaders.

"We do not project either candidate reaches 270 electoral votes without winning Pennsylvania, which is currently a dead tie," The Hill’s Decision Desk HQ reported in a recent forecast and analysis of polling averages.

The respected website 270towin.com gave 226 electoral college votes to Harris and 219 to Trump.

According to NBC News Election Desk, "Pennsylvania is emerging as the most critical battleground state in the 2024 election. Donald Trump won the state by less than one percentage point in 2016 and lost it by about one percentage point in 2020. Kamala Harris has remained competitive there and the state is classified as a 'toss-up'." This is why both Harris and Trump are "pouring more money, time and energy into Pennsylvania than anywhere else, waging an ad war as they criss-cross the state," according to The New York Times.

"There may be seven main battlegrounds in the race for the White House in 2024, all of which could prove crucial. But Pennsylvania stands apart as the state that top strategists for both Harris and Trump have circled as the likeliest to tip the election,” reported The New York Times.

According to the Daily, it is daunting for either Trump or, especially, Harris to reach the 270 electoral college votes needed to win without it.

Democratic National Finance Committee, during its recent Fall Retreat Programme in Philadelphia, arrived at the same conclusion that there is no pathway for a victory to Harris without winning Pennsylvania, informed sources told PTI. The Trump Campaign also believes the same.

The Democrats are banking on winning the Blue Wall, which includes Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, while the Trump Campaign is giving a very tough fight to Harris in all three states. Trump won all three in 2016.

"Both the Harris and Trump campaigns see the state's 19 electoral votes as key to reaching the 270 needed to win the presidential election, while contests there could also determine control of Capitol Hill," PBS News reported.

On Sunday, the Trump campaign announced that it will launch a Bus Tour in Pennsylvania from October 21. Prominent among them include Indian American Kash Patel.

According to NBC News, both campaigns have blanketed the state in recent months, with their presidential and vice presidential nominees making about 50 appearances over the past three months, easily the greatest total of any swing state.

"The campaign's dollars are flowing into Pennsylvania too. One of every four dollars spent on ads in the presidential race from Sept. 1 to 20 were spent in the state, according to AdImpact,” the news channel reported.

On Sunday, Trump donned a McDonald's uniform and manned the fry station at a Pennsylvania franchise.