Pennsylvania

Here’s Why Pennsylvania Might Be The Most Important Prize In The 2024 Election

Published

1 year ago

September 12, 2024

Here’s Why Pennsylvania Might Be The Most Important Prize In The 2024 Election

Topline

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are nearly tied in Pennsylvania, according to two new polls this week in the battleground state, where a win for either candidate could pave the way to the White House.

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris reacts as Former President and … [+] Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during the first presidential debate at National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, PA on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Photo by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The Washington Post via Getty Images

Key Facts

Harris leads by 0.6 points in Pennsylvania, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average—a recent Morning Consult poll found her up by three points, 49% to 46%, and a September CBS/YouGov poll showed Harris and Trump even, both at 50%.

Pennsylvania has more electoral votes, 19, than any other battleground, and Pennsylvanians routinely pick winners, voting for 10 of the last 12 White House winners—the candidate who has won Pennsylvania has also won Michigan and Wisconsin (the three states together are known as the “blue wall”) in the past eight elections.

Pennsylvania has a 35% chance of tipping the election, far more than any other battleground state, according to political analyst Nate Silver’s election forecasting model that found Harris has a 91% of winning the election if she wins Pennsylvania, while Trump has a 96% chance of winning.

Trump became the first Republican to win Pennsylvania since the 1980s in the 2016 election, and Biden, who is originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania, reversed the trend in 2020, with the state to putting him over the 270-vote threshold needed to win the Electoral College when the Associated Press called Pennsylvania for Biden four days after the election.

Underscoring Pennsylvania’s weight in the 2024 election, ABC News chose to host the first presidential debate between Trump and Harris there, on Tuesday in Philadelphia; Pennsylvania is also significant to Trump personally, as he was shot there while speaking at a rally near Butler on July 14.

Pennsylvania has a large share of white, working class voters, with nearly 75% of the population identifying as non-Hispanic white—a demographic Trump typically performs well with, though Harris has made inroads with white voters compared to Biden’s performance in 2020, trailing Trump by only three points nationally, according to the latest PBS News/NPR/Marist poll, after Trump won the demographic by 12 points in 2020.

Surprising Fact

No Democrat has won the White House without Pennsylvania since 1948. If Harris wins Pennsylvania, and the trend of also winning Wisconsin and Michigan holds, she’s all but certain to win the White House.

Big Number

82%. That’s the share of registered voters in Pennsylvania who said the economy is a major factor in their 2024 vote, followed by inflation at 78% and the state of democracy at 70%, according to the CBS/YouGov survey. The results are on par with the national electorate, according to a recent Pew Research survey of registered voters that found 81% of registered voters rate the economy as “very important” in the election.

Chief Critic

Trump and his allies have repeatedly attacked Harris over her previous endorsement of a fracking ban—Pennsylvania is the country’s second-largest natural gas producer. “Fracking? She’s been against it for 12 years,” Trump said during Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia. Harris, who said during a 2019 CNN climate town hall while she was running for president “there’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” has said she’s since changed her stance. During Tuesday’s debate, she said she made “very clear” in 2020 that she’s against a fracking ban, presumably referring to her vice presidential debate with Mike Pence, and noted the Inflation Reduction Act opened new gas leases—reiterating a stance she took in a CNN interview last month. Harris didn’t actually say she changed her own position on the issue during the 2020 debate—instead she said then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden “will not end fracking.”

Tangent

Pennsylvania has a divided state legislature. The state’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, is widely popular in the state. Democrats also control the House, but Republicans hold the majority in the Senate.

Key Background

Harris leads Trump in five of seven battleground states, while Trump is ahead in Arizona and Georgia, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling averages that show margins of less than three points in all seven battleground states (Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin). If Trump maintains his leads in Arizona and Georgia, and wins North Carolina, as he’s expected to, he would need just one of the “Blue Wall” states to win the White House.

State College, Pennsylvania: 2026 USA TODAY 10BEST Readers’ Choice Awards

Published

3 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

State College, Pennsylvania: 2026 USA TODAY 10BEST Readers’ Choice Awards

In rural Pennsylvania, State College houses Penn State against a backdrop of beautiful country scenery. The university hosts many events, arts performances, and lively festivals that give the town year-round excitement that blends student life with local charm. Visitors can attend a football game, explore nearby parks and trails, and savor the town’s growing culinary scene of pubs and local eateries.

Source link

Pennsylvania

What the war with Iran could mean for gas prices in western Pennsylvania

Published

15 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

What the war with Iran could mean for gas prices in western Pennsylvania

The war with Iran could start impacting your wallet as soon as today.

Jim Garrity from AAA East Central says oil prices are up.

“They’re hovering around $72. They were pretty consistently around $65, $66 for a while,” he said.

Nationally, AAA said the average for a gallon of regular sits at about $3, up approximately six cents from last week.

In Pennsylvania, it’s around $3.12 a gallon, and in the Pittsburgh region, it’s around $3.24 a gallon. That’s actually down about four cents from last week.

Garrity added that gas prices this time of year would already be increasing, usually because of higher demand for the warmer months and the production of the summer blend of gas used for those months.

The impacts of what’s happening in Iran may not be immediate, which could be part of why our region and the state overall have not seen a spike yet, he said.

“It could be a couple of days later. It could be up to a week later,” Garrity said.

A lot of people are watching what happens with the Strait of Hormuz. Iran borders it to the north, and 20% of the world’s oil goes through it.

Iran is one of the world’s biggest oil producers, and China gets a lot of that oil.

“If there is an impact there, you could see oil start to come in from other parts of the world, which has a downstream effect on [the United States],” Garrity said.

One way you can save on gas if prices increase in our area is by slowing down.

“When you drive faster every five miles, over 50 miles an hour, your fuel efficiency is going down,” Garrity said. “You’re making the car work harder, making the gasoline consumption less effective.”

Garrity added that in 2022, when our area and many others saw some of the highest gas prices ever recorded, people changed their driving habits.

“We saw people make seemingly permanent changes to their driving behaviors, driving less in general, consolidating trips,” he said.

In:

Source link

Pennsylvania

Iran vows revenge after the killing of its top leader

Published

1 day ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Iran vows revenge after the killing of its top leader

With energy affordability and reliability dominating headlines, state lawmakers peppered Pennsylvania Environmental Protection Secretary Jessica Shirley about the administration’s strategy to speed the addition of new power sources to the electric grid. Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee asked Thursday about the administration’s plans to ensure Pennsylvanians’ lights stay on as the commonwealth courts tech […]

Source link