Why Pennsylvania could be the key to the White House

The race for Pennsylvania is in full swing.

Commercial breaks across the state are packed with attack ads. Some claim Vice President Harris made inflation worse while others highlight former President Donald Trump's role in restricting abortion access for millions of Americans.

With just over two weeks until Election Day, the amount and frequency of ads shouldn’t come as a shock. Daniel Hopkins, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said bombarding state residents with TV ads is politically strategic.

“Candidates are better off when they can persuade voters, because if they persuade a voter, they not only add one to their tally, but they take one out of their opponents tally,” Hopkins said. “Whereas if I just turn out a voter, then I've added one to my tally, but I haven't done anything to my opponent's tally.”

But voters across the state are bearing the brunt of the political grind, as both campaigns have spent more money on ads in Pennsylvania than any other battleground state. Harris and Trump need the state because it holds 19 electoral votes – the largest share available among the seven closely watched battleground states.

Why is Pennsylvania getting so much attention?

Polls show Harris and Trump are locked in a tight race here. Several Pennsylvania political observers NPR spoke to as part of our We, The Voters series say the state is a toss up, which is why the candidates are fiercely fighting to win votes here.

Both candidates and their running mates have spent increasingly more time here over the past few weeks.

Harris sat for a testy interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier in Philadelphia last week, as she attempted to present herself as an alternate choice for Republicans who are unhappy with Trump. And earlier this month, Trump returned to Butler, where he survived an assassination attempt this summer, and honed in on immigration and border control.

Since President Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Harris in late July, Democrats have spent about $159 million on advertising in Pennsylvania compared Republicans who have spent around $121 million, according to a recent AdImpact report.

Pennsylvanians have voted for the winner of every presidential election since former President Barack Obama won in 2008. And in the prior four presidential elections, Pennsylvania voted reliably blue.

But the state swung red in 2016 when Trump won it by roughly 45,000 votes. In 2020, the Keystone State state flipped again. Biden won it by about 80,000 votes, according to Pennsylvania voting results data. Although Biden’s win was larger than Trump’s, it was not an overwhelming victory. In a state that then had more than 9 million registered voters, his win amounted to one percentage point.

So what's on the minds of voters this year?

A September poll of 800 likely Pennsylvania voters found that people here care most about the economy, followed by abortion.

Retired Navy veteran Ed Grkman, whom NPR met in West Mifflin, a borough located southeast of Pittsburgh, said he favors Trump to handle the economy. An American flag waved from a pole in his front lawn, as he cut his grass and stopped to speak. Grkman lives off of a fixed Social Security income and said prices have gotten higher over the past four years.

“I'm doing worse than I was when Donald Trump was in office,” Grkman said. “So, anybody voting should be voting for the price to be lower.”

Meanwhile, abortion access — Harris' strongest issue — is top of mind for nearly half of Pennsylvania voters, including many independents.

Jessica Krayer, a lactation consultant at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh, said supporting Harris and Democrats would help preserve abortion access in the state.

Krayer, a nurse with 19 years of experience in women’s health, has helped deliver babies and handled more difficult pregnancies, including some that threatened the help of patients. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, she also welcomed and treated patients from neighboring states with restrictive abortion laws.

“No matter what, that decision [to get an abortion] is never taken lightly,” Krayer said. “It is not my job to judge anyone for that situation. If I was in a situation where I couldn't afford to feed another kid, I don't know what I would do.”

Here's what Trump and Harris need to win the state

Trump is a household name at this point. And his populist message continues to resonate with white Pennsylvania voters without college degrees, aging voters and blue collar workers, including many who worked in the state’s declining steel, coal and manufacturing industries.

Those residents make up about half of the state's eligible voter base.

"Donald Trump will do particularly well here in Pennsylvania to the extent that the Trump campaign is able to turn out irregular voters who lean toward the president,” Hopkins said.

Harris will need to maintain gains that Biden made in many of the suburbs around Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Hopkins added. Biden won in 2020 in large part from turnout in the most populous cities in the state — Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Allentown — voted in his favor. He also benefited from losing by fewer votes in the state’s more conservative small towns and suburban areas.

Harris will also need to rely on the sizable share of Black voters and smaller number of Latino voters in places like Philadelphia, Hopkins said.

Black people make up nearly 40% of the population in Philadelphia, according to the United States Census Bureau. Latinos make up about 16%.

Joe Hill, a board member of Black Leadership Pennsylvania, a political action committee working to educate Black residents across the state about voting, said Harris has strong appeal in the state's big cities thanks to her identity as a Black and South Asian woman.

“Her ability as a woman to rise up the ranks on her own merits is motivating a lot of women in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh,” Hill said.

The same is true for some Latino voters in the state, like Guillermo Lopez of Allentown, Pa., where Latinos make up more than half the population.

Pinned to his sweater, when NPR met him for an interview, were two big blue buttons that read "Vote for Harris."

"I already filled in my ballot and mailed it in," Lopez said. "If I keep talking, I'll get weepy because I never imagined in my life that I would be voting for someone that looks like my daughter."

Destinee Adams reported from Allentown. Obed Manuel reported from Pittsburgh.

This story was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.