As Democrats Panic, Biden Plans Emergency Pennsylvania Campaign Swing

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign is planning a last-minute push through Pennsylvania on the eve of the election as doubts begin to emerge over the Democrats’ standing in the commonwealth.

On Sunday, the Biden campaign announced that both the former vice president and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), as well as their respective spouses, would converge on Pennsylvania on the eve of the election. Each of the four individuals is scheduled to appear in a different portion of the state to rally supporters to get out and vote.

The full-scale mobilization comes one day after President Donald Trump hosted a rally in western Pennsylvania. Trump, who polls show is narrowly behind in the commonwealth, drew a massive crowd, with some estimating more than 57,000 individuals were in attendance. The sheer size of the crowd forced Pennsylvania’s Lt. Governor John Fetterman (D) on Sunday to warn fellow Democrats not to take Trump’s popularity in the state lightly.

“This is not MAGA propaganda. Can’t fake a crowd like that. But you *can* make sure you show up and get every vote in,” Fetterman wrote on social media.

Others on the left have begun voicing similar concerns in recent days, with the Washington Post reporting on Sunday that “confidence has eroded” about Biden’s chances of carrying Pennsylvania easily.

Complicating matters for Biden and down-ballot Democrats is that the GOP has narrowed their voter registration advantage in the state.

Even though Trump only won Pennsylvania narrowly four years ago, Republicans have seen their support grow substantially since. According to a voter registration report released in June by Pennsylvania’s Department of State, Republicans added 258,705 new registrants between December 2015 and December 2019. Over the same period, Democrats only gained 85,779 new registrants.

The GOP’s success has narrowed the Democrats’ voter advantage in Pennsylvania to just slightly more than 710,000 voters. Although that split seems large, Democrats had an even larger registration advantage in 2016 when Trump bested former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the state by just 44,292 votes out of more than six million ballots. Trump’s margin of victory, narrow though it was, made him the first Republican to carry Pennsylvania since President George H.W. Bush’s 1988 landslide.