Published on 05/11/2022 11:20
(Credit: Jim Watson, Saul Loeb/AFP)
Pennsylvania will be the scene of a clash of presidents on Saturday, as each party’s biggest star works to woo voters just days before the midterm elections.
Former Democratic President Barack Obama opened today at a rally in Pittsburgh with Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman, the deputy governor of Pennsylvania, who represents his party’s best chance of winning a Senate seat on Tuesday. Republicans control it. Obama and Furman will appear alongside President Joe Biden and Governor Josh Shapiro at the end of the day in Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump will end his day courting voters in the state’s southwest with Senate candidate Mehmet Oz and Doug Mastriano, who is running for governor.
The presidents’ strong interest in Pennsylvania underscores the bets that the state will be decisive in this election. Opinion polls show close races between Trump’s Senate candidate, Oz, and Biden’s candidate, Biden, in the race to replace Republican Senator Pat Tome.
In the gubernatorial race, Shapiro, the Democratic attorney general, is leading polls for Masteriano, a retired Army colonel that some Republicans believe is too radical to win the general election in a state that Biden narrowly led two years ago.
While Democrats are optimistic about the ruling race in Pennsylvania, they are on the offensive nationwide this weekend. Obama’s midday appearance in Pittsburgh marks his first campaign in Pennsylvania this year, although the former president was the Democratic Party’s number one alternate in the last race through Election Day. Obama has campaigned in the past few days in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona before arriving in Pennsylvania.
With Biden’s approval numbers low, the incumbent’s presence has been less visible in states where the race will be fierce, although this Saturday marks his third appearance in three weeks in his home state of Pennsylvania as he works to bolster Fetterman.
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