Trump Takes Battleground Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania, the Keystone State, lived up to its nickname on election night as the final piece needed to lock everything together in the 2024 presidential election.

With 19 electoral votes, the path to the White House most likely needed to include a win in Pennsylvania, and with nearly all of the votes counted, former President Donald Trump has an insurmountable lead in the state.

At publishing time, Trump had 3,399,081 votes. That is more than Trump received in 2020, when he racked up 3,377,674 votes.

By contrast, Vice President Kamala Harris had received 3,224,282 votes, compared to Joe Biden’s 3,458,229 votes in 2020.

In other words, Trump did better than he did in 2020, and Harris performed worse than Biden did in 2020.

Before all the votes were counted in Pennsylvania, things started looking bleak for Harris as Trump was declared the winner in state after state, racking up electoral votes. With a room full of people waiting to hear from her Tuesday night, Harris did what she does best: she avoided them, took her ball, and went home. The crowd was told she would not speak on election night but that Harris would speak on Wednesday.

For weeks the Pennsylvania Department of State has been warning voters not to expect results on election night and to remember the results could change and even flip the winner. Overseas voters have until Nov. 12 to return their ballots and be counted. This year, 37,642 overseas voters requested ballots to vote in Pennsylvania according to Department of State data. There are not enough overseas votes to change the result.   

As already mentioned, Harris had a weaker showing than Biden did in 2020 in Pennsylvania. In Monroe County, Biden received 53 percent of the votes in 2020. But Trump turned Monroe red, and Harris lost, receiving 49 percent of Monroe’s votes.

The pattern was repeated in other counties like Erie, Centre, and Northampton, leaving the state more Republican.

Harris spent a lot of time and money campaigning in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and although she won in these counties, she earned fewer votes than Biden did in 2020.

In an election night speech, Gov. Josh Shapiro said Act 88, passed by the legislature, mandated that counties count votes continuously through the night until they’ve completed the task.

“I urge everyone to be patient, to avoid spreading or repeating any mis- or disinformation, and to rely on trusted sources of election information, like the Department of State’s election returns website,” Shapiro said. “Every legal, eligible vote will be counted and counted accurately, and the will of the people here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will be respected.”

Secretary of State Al Schmidt spoke alongside Shapiro, and Schmidt said the state had around 45,000 poll workers across its 67 counties.

“I’m pleased to report that Pennsylvania has once again held a free, fair, safe, and secure Election Day,” Schmidt said moments after most of the polls closed.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.