These seven states hold the keys to the White House but Harris and Trump face tough hurdles to win them
With polls showing Vice President Harris and former President Trump locked in a dead heat as the 2024 race for the White House enters its final hours, the fate of the nation will turn on seven battleground states.These swing states have a combined 93 electoral votes.Some are longtime pillars of the so-called Democratic “blue wall,” which Trump demolished in 2016.Others are staples of the Republican coalition President Biden clawed away in 2020.With no pandemic, there will be fewer mail-in ballots this year — which could yield a winner much sooner than in 2020, when the race was called for Biden four days after the election.Here’s a look at each of the critical swing states:The Keystone State — and its 19 electoral votes — is the crown jewel.
After being locked in Democratic hands for a generation, Trump narrowly won the state in 2016 by 44,292 votes, while Biden snatched it back in 2020 by a little more than 80,000 votes.Trump was shot here in an assassination attempt that shook the presidential race.
Results here could be the latest in the nation, due to a quirk in state law requiring election officials to wait until 7 a.m on Election Day to begin counting mailed ballots.Though polls have been a statistical dead head, Republicans are bullish.
“More than 21% of all Republicans who have voted so far did not vote in any of the last three elections.This is a higher percentage than the number of low-propensity Democrats voting,” said Ryan Girdusky, a GOP political consultant.
“But most concerning for Democrats is the big decrease of voters in Philadelphia.”This longtime Democratic bastion fell to former President Trump’s 2016 electoral wave, but moved back into the blue for President Biden in 2020.Vice President Harris will look to squeeze every last vote from large Democratic cities like Detroit, while allies of former President Trump are looking to turn out more red-leaning suburbs and run up the score in the swings areas of Kent County and...