President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump officially won Pennsylvania’s presidential primary Tuesday as the campaigns prepare for a November rematch pitting two vastly different leadership styles and political visions for the nation against each other.
Their primary victories were a foregone conclusion, but the closely contested general election will hinge on which of the deeply unpopular candidates can build a coalition in swing states like Pennsylvania.
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“People can’t believe that we’re doing this again,” said Ray Courtney, a Lower Merion Township commissioner at the polls there on Tuesday.
The state has helped decide the last two presidential elections, narrowly going for Trump in 2016 and then swinging to Biden four years later. It stands poised to play a similar role this election as evidenced by both candidates’ frequent visits to the state.
Biden, 81, called Philadelphia his “ticket to the White House” last week and in numerous visits to the area has portrayed Trump as a threat to democracy.
Trump, 77, did a one-on-one interview with a local ABC affiliate Tuesday morning, a sign of his interest in reaching the region. “We have to get the vote out. We have to show support because we are right now confronted with the worst president in the history of our country,” he said.
At the polls on Tuesday, during what appeared to be an election of anemic turnout, voters expressed fatigue and fear over their repeat choices. They also shared concerns over the economy, immigration, democracy, and the war in Gaza.
With a little over six months until the election, the stakes are high and enthusiasm is low. Much of the progressive activist energy that had been directed against Trump in the lead-up to 2020 is now directed at Biden, as he struggles to carve out a position on the war in Gaza that doesn’t further fracture the big-tented Democratic Party.
“I don’t feel like Biden has lived up to his campaign promises,” said Abigail Thomas, a 21-year-old junior at West Chester University who wrote in “uncommitted” in the Democratic presidential primary.
Thomas, who is from Bustleton, canvassed for Biden in 2020 but is frustrated with the president’s inaction on civilian deaths in Gaza. The “uncommitted” write-in campaign follows similar efforts in other states.
In West Philly, Tea Jackson, 40, also wrote in “uncommitted,” and said she’s considering backing a third-party candidate in November.
“I’m tired of the lesser of two evils,” Jackson, 40, said.
Pro-Palestinian protesters have shown up at nearly every campaign event Biden has held, including his visit to his childhood home in Scranton last week. In a sense, both campaigns are counting on swaying these voters.
“Trump’s campaign … they’re focusing on getting Biden’s people not to turn out,” Philadelphia political strategist Mustafa Rashed said. “Biden’s focusing on getting his base to turn out.”
‘You should — not be a criminal’
It’s not just progressive voters, though. Trump’s campaign has also made a push with several other traditionally Democratic voting blocs, like Black and Latino voters, whose support for Biden is waning in many polls.
There’s also the looming variable of third-party candidates in what’s expected to be a tight election. Trump has said if he were a Democrat he’d back Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent candidate who many Democrats fear could siphon votes away from Biden even if his famous family has endorsed the president. More recently, polling has shown Kennedy Jr. could also pull from Trump’s base.
“In a country of 330 million people, we get two people who just don’t get it,” said Joe Murray, 79, of Pennsport. “I’m going to waste my vote on something like the Green Party.”
Trump has his trials, too, both criminal and political. He’s attempting to patch together a coalition that narrowly won him Pennsylvania in 2016 with fewer resources and less time to campaign.
Barbara Morehead, an 86-year-old Republican committeeperson in the 31st Ward in Kensington, was passing out Republican sample ballots with Trump’s name on them but said she’s unlikely to vote for him in November.
”I think when you’re running for president you should, you should — not be a criminal,” Morehead said.
The civil and criminal court cases against him have sucked up campaign time and money. While Biden boasts about a huge campaign presence in the state, Trump has yet to open an office here or hire staff assigned to Pennsylvania.
But Trump may not need the kind of organizing that Biden does because Democrats rely more than Republicans on local get-out-the-vote efforts to drive turnout. Trump polls closely with Biden in the state despite having virtually no on-the-ground presence.
“He’s the most recent former president. He has his folks all over the place and every Republican state party’s office is basically his headquarters,” GOP political consultant Chris Nicholas said.
And Trump still has considerable support in Pennsylvania, where his rallies have drawn thousands.
“The Democrats are making a mockery of this country,” said Donna Kennedy, 69, a Trump supporter, outside Roxborough High School.
Under Trump, “there was no inflation, the border wasn’t being overrun,” said Jim Flynn, 68, a retired union carpenter in Langhorne, who now drives a tour bus. He said at the polls that prosecutions of Trump were “just trying to keep him off the ballot.”
Expanding his coalition could be a struggle for Trump, who like Biden, consistently polls at a little above 40%.
“His challenge in Pennsylvania is that his ceiling has always been his floor,” Rashed said.
Carmen Pirritano voted for Trump Tuesday but said he wasn’t sure how he would vote in November. “Obviously, if he’s in jail, that matters,” said Pirritano, who said the economy would also factor into his vote.
Pirritano, 60, a software developer said Biden is “not as bad as the people who hate him think, but not as good as the people who love him.”
Pennsylvania voters are accustomed to two choices that do not altogether excite them. In 2016, Trump won in large part because voters said they disliked Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton so much they figured they’d take a chance on someone new. In 2020, Biden, despite being vice president for eight years, won for much of the same reason — a dislike for Trump and an appetite for change.
“The old rule is that undecided voters, people who dislike both candidates, will in the end cut to the devil they don’t know,” Nicholas said. “But this year there is no devil you don’t know.”
The questions ahead
In the coming months, Biden and Trump will visit Pennsylvania repeatedly. They’ll face an electorate that is largely representative of the country, living in big Democratic cities, increasingly blue suburbs, and Republican strongholds nearly everywhere else.
With the most electoral votes of any swing state and a history of narrow margins in presidential races, Pennsylvania isn’t just a bellwether for how the country shifts politically but a geographic road map for how each candidate can win again.
Trump must hold on to his support in rural areas, where even a slight erosion could obstruct his path to victory. Biden needs to match if not build on his past support in suburban areas, where Trump has alienated voters but will try to make inroads.
How Philadelphia turns out, particularly whether young and Black and Latino voters rally behind Biden, could be a deciding variable.
As turnout looked sluggish midday Tuesday, State Rep. Danilo Burgos said city Democrats have their work cut out for them. “We need to focus more on reengaging more in all of our communities,” he said.
The thematic lines for both candidates are clear.
Biden will likely continue an offensive against Trump centered on abortion rights and an argument that his policies have helped working-class Americans.
Lillian Sweeney, a 65-year-old nurse who voted in Kensington, said women’s reproductive rights were top of mind along with LGBTQ rights. “I just can’t even imagine having the previous person back at the helm,” she said.
But Biden’s age concerns her in terms of whether he can appeal to enough people to win. “It’s scary in a lot of ways.”
Khalil Abdus-Salaam, 64, a retired Philadelphia firefighter from North Philly, voted for Biden by mail and also worried about another Trump term. “We need to teach children at a young age that they need to vote as if their life depends on it.”
Trump is likely to continue pushing stricter immigration and border security measures, and blaming Biden for inflation, as the economy continues to loom large over the race.
Rasheedah Odom, 40, is a registered Democrat who backed Biden in 2020, but the North Philadelphia resident is considering Trump due to rising prices and inequality.
“I got to work two jobs in order to provide for my household,” Odom said, who works as a home health aide. “I don’t want to spend our money outside of the country. We got people here in the United States that need help. Just take a walk up Kensington, you’ll see we’ve got issues here in the city.”
In the coming months, Trump will select a running mate, a choice that will signal a lot about the type of voters the campaign thinks he needs to get over the line or who can draw out unconvinced or disinterested voters.
A fresh political personality was a near-universal wish at the polls on Tuesday.
Amy Kolsky, 53, voted for Biden in Sellersville but she said she’d love the Democratic nominee to be “someone with more charisma, more energy.”
“Like a Jon Stewart.”
Staff writers Maddie Hanna, Sean Collins Walsh, Henry Savage, Lynette Hazelton, Jake Blumgart, and Zoe Greenberg contributed to this article.
