Trump, Harris both in Pittsburgh day before Election Day

Pittsburgh and Allegheny County prepared Monday for the election-eve convergence of presidential candidates in the most unusual election in more than half a century.

Republican nominee Donald Trump is expected to speak at PPG Paints Arena, in Uptown, at around 6 p.m.

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is expected to be at the Carrie Blast Furnace National Historic Landmark, in Swissvale, at some point in the evening.

“At this time, there are no election-related threats registered by our intel unit, which continues to monitor the situation,” said Chris Ragland, acting chief of police for Pittsburgh. He said he was unaware of any recent election-related threats, and that the bureau is prepared to respond to “First Amendment activity,” but doesn’t have reason to believe it needs to deploy extra officers to any specific parts of the city.

Pittsburgh police will be in charge of escorting Harris to Swissvale, but will not have meaningful involvement in security at that event. Harris was initially expected to speak at Point State Park, but plans shifted over the weekend. Ragland denied any involvement in the change of venue, or knowledge of the reasons behind it, but said it would “probably” make things easier for his bureau.

Pittsburgh police will respond to any reports of crimes at polling places within the city, Ragland said, but incidents that are election-related but are not crimes will be handled by the Allegheny County sheriffs.

Police will work their usual 10-hour shifts, but all days off in the coming days have been canceled. Campaigns won’t be billed for overtime paid to officers related to today’s events, but the Trump campaign will be billed for extra medic staffing this evening.

If any post-election protest emerges, the bureau is ready to coordinate with county, state and campus police forces, Ragland said. “We will not tolerate violence, and we will intervene when we see such.”

Spending the last evening here

Coming so late in an election in which more than 200,000 Allegheny County residents have already voted by mail and most minds appear to have been made up, the dueling rallies reflect desperation on both sides to get as many people to turn out tomorrow as possible.

“If you can get 100, 200, 500 people to turn out who would not have voted in a state like Pennsylvania, that’s a good use of your time,” said Christopher Beem, managing director of Penn State’s McCourtney Institute for Democracy. “Given that Pittsburgh and its surrounding areas have this tradition of going both ways, Democratic and Republican, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if both campaigns have a similar read on that situation.”

Though Allegheny County’s 526,000 registered Democrats nearly double the Republican ranks, the GOP last year came within 10,000 votes of winning the election for county executive.

In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won Pennsylvania, besting Trump by around 80,000 votes. This year, the seven swing states are polling as neck-and-neck contests, and Pennsylvania is the largest.

“It’s conceivable for both of them to come up with a winning ticket that excludes Pennsylvania, but it’s much, much harder,” said Beem. “You basically have to get all the other big states. You have to get Michigan and Georgia and North Carolina.”

The polls in Pennsylvania, Beem said, are “so close that this kind of event, they’re not expecting to make a huge impact, but it’s worth it.”

Anticipating “large crowds and road closures,” the Pittsburgh Public Schools announced Friday that students would have a half day.

The county and city announced they’d dismiss non-essential employees at noon. (The County Office Building was to remain open until 4:30 p.m. for ballot returns.)

Check back with PublicSource this evening for coverage of the candidates’ events.

Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter and a Report for America corps member. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org or at @chwolfson on Twitter.

Rich Lord is PublicSource’s managing editor. He can be reached at rich@publicsource.org.