Harris takes refuge in Pittsburgh with her eyes set on a crucial issue like Pennsylvania

PITTSBURGH – Vice President Harris will be holed up in western Pennsylvania for nearly a full week as she prepares to face former President Trump in their first and perhaps only debate.

Harris arrived in Pittsburgh on Thursday and is expected to remain there until Tuesday’s crucial clash in Philadelphia.

The vice president’s seemingly unusual decision to base herself outside Washington may be aimed at cultivating a positive atmosphere — and beneficial local media coverage — in a state that is the largest and most crucial of the seven battlegrounds that will decide the election.

But the vice president will also be intensely focused on the debate itself, the highest-stakes moment for her candidacy since last month’s Democratic convention.

Philippe Reines, who was a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state, is representing Trump during the preparations. Reines also stood in for Trump during Clinton’s preparation in 2016. Democratic operative Karen Dunn and Harris’s former Senate chief of staff, Rohini Kosoglu, are handling debate preparation, a source familiar with the matter told The Hill.

The Keystone State carries the prize of 19 electoral college votes, and winning it would put the victor significantly closer to the White House. Biden, who considers Pennsylvania his home state along with Delaware, won the state in 2020 after Trump won it in 2016.

Right now, the battle for the Keystone State appears to be in a very tight balance. A CNN poll released Wednesday found the race there to be exactly tied, with 47 percent of voters supporting Harris and Trump.

In the average of polls maintained by The Hill and Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), the state is also essentially tied, with Harris ahead by less than a percentage point.

Harris is following in the footsteps of former President Obama by choosing to stage the debate in a state the campaign is fully focused on winning in November.

In 2008, Obama settled into western North Carolina as he prepared to debate the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). During his preparation, he made an appearance at an Asheville, N.C., barbecue restaurant to speak to diners. Obama won North Carolina in 2008, becoming the first Democrat to win the state in a presidential election since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Harris traveled to Pittsburgh on Thursday afternoon and was welcomed by Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.).

Political observers expect him to speak to Pennsylvania voters sometime between Friday and Monday, either at planned formal events or at informal stops such as a coffee shop. He will then travel from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia on Tuesday to take the stage with Trump.

“If you go out for coffee or decide to take a walk, you’re taking a walk in a state where you’re trying to generate news and interest,” one Democratic operative described. “It’s always better not to be at home, you want to be in a different environment so your brain can focus.”

Harris was also in Pittsburgh on Monday, when she joined Biden at their first official campaign event together (a joint stop in Maryland last month was technically a White House event, not organized under the auspices of Harris’s campaign). On Monday, Harris and the president spoke at an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall, and before that met with a small, friendly group of people.

Harris’s decision to be in Pittsburgh before the debate is entirely different from Biden’s decision to do his preparation at Camp David before his now-infamous June 27 showdown with Trump. He was at the presidential residence for a week, completely out of public view, before traveling to Atlanta for the debate, where he performed so poorly that it plunged his party into crisis and ultimately led him to drop out of the race.

Former Pennsylvania Rep. Chris Carney (D), senior counsel at Nossaman LLP, said debate preparation in Pittsburgh is a way for Harris to be productive and present in a state that is so critical this cycle.

“Being in Pittsburgh is a matter of efficiency. He can prepare for the debates and make campaign stops in the western and northwestern parts of the state, especially in Erie, where Democratic votes can be picked up for Trump,” Carney said.

Erie County is considered a critical area in the battle to win the state. Biden won Erie by less than 1,500 votes after Trump won it in 2016 by less than 2,000 votes, according to NPR.

Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), campaigned in Erie on Thursday and also traveled to Lancaster and Pittsburgh this week. While Harris is in Pittsburgh, her running mate, Doug Emhoff, will travel to Wayne, Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia suburb, to campaign on Sunday.

Todd Belt, director of the political management program at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, reiterated the importance of Erie County as a benchmark.

But Belt also noted that any positive attention Harris receives in Western Pennsylvania more broadly could help in a key task: narrowing Trump’s margins in some of the rural and exurban counties where Republicans hold an advantage.

“Remember, the goal is not to win the rural white vote, but to lose it as badly as Hillary Clinton,” Belt said. “It all adds up to the state totals.”

Belt also suggested that the kind of local coverage generated by any informal visits Harris makes while in the area could be politically useful.

“The alternative is not to do it, and then you open yourself up to the attack of being elitist and out of touch, one of the ‘coastal elites.’”

Harris’s decision may not seem like the kind of momentous decision on which an election depends.

But in a state where the margin of victory has been so narrow in the last two elections, even the slightest advantage could make a difference.

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