Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are campaigning in the swing state of Pennsylvania this weekend.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are holding campaign events in the key state of Pennsylvania this weekend as the race between the US presidential candidates heats up ahead of the November election.
Trump will hold a rally in the small city of Wilkes-Barre on Saturday, while Harris is expected to make several stops on a bus tour of Pittsburgh on Sunday.
Attention is turning to Pennsylvania — one of several swing states expected to be decisive in deciding the election — as recent polls show a tight race between Republican and Democratic candidates in key parts of the country.
A New York Times/Siena College poll on Saturday showed Harris, who launched her campaign after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid last month, had gained ground in four states where Trump appeared poised to comfortably win against Biden.
The US vice president and Democratic candidate was leading Trump among likely voters in Arizona and North Carolina, the poll showed, and had narrowed the former Republican president's lead in Georgia and Nevada.
An earlier New York Times/Siena College poll released last week also showed Harris at 50 percent support among voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, compared with 46 percent support for Trump in each state.
Harris' push to the White House has reinvigorated a race that had largely failed to inspire many Americans frustrated by the choice between Trump and Biden.
The two had faced each other in 2020, with Biden defeating his predecessor in a race that Trump falsely claimed was plagued by widespread fraud.
Trump lost to Biden in Pennsylvania in that election by a narrow margin, but he has strong support in rural areas and small towns.
Now that Harris is leading the Democratic ticket for 2024, Trump has struggled to find an effective way to counter her campaign.
Recent statements from Trump's team have focused on issues like immigration and inflation, but the president has spent much of his recent speeches launching personal attacks on Harris's identity.
“Hardworking Americans are suffering because of the Harris-Biden administration’s dangerously liberal policies,” the Trump campaign said in a statement ahead of Saturday’s rally in Wilkes-Barre.
“Prices are extremely high, the cost of living has skyrocketed, crime has skyrocketed and illegal immigrants are coming into our country in droves,” he said, although a recent crackdown on the US-Mexico border has stemmed much of the flow of migrants and asylum seekers.
He also criticized Harris on Thursday over the economy, saying she has a “very strong communist leaning” that would bring about the “death of the American dream.”
Harris, who will travel to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention next week, has promised to “reduce costs and increase economic security for all Americans.”
In one of his first major policy speeches of the campaign on Friday, he laid out a series of proposals he said would help boost the economy and combat “price speculation” on food.
“I will focus exclusively on creating opportunities for the middle class,” Harris told a crowd of supporters in North Carolina. “Together, we will build what I call an opportunity economy.”
