There may be no election more watched on election night than the 2024 Pennsylvania presidential race.
The Keystone State holds 19 electoral votes, and as we already know, they are in a batch of seven states which will decide the election. Whichever party wins Pennsylvania has a very, very good chance of winning the presidency with it.
Our goal with this preview was not to discuss the major issues of the day in Pennsylvania, since the Harris and Trump campaigns will be discussing many of those same issues from state to state. Rather, we aim to show you which counties and cities are most important as the Democrats and Republicans try to win the Commonwealth.
2024 Pennsylvania Presidential Race Preview
2024 Pennsylvania Presidential Race: Critical Counties
There might be no county more consequential to the hopes of Kamala Harris than Philadelphia. This is the county and city which put Joe Biden over the top in 2020, and Harris is hoping for similar good fortune.
In Philadelphia, African-American voters are a very important voting bloc, and there was concern before Joe Biden dropped out that enthusiasm was lagging. Kamala Harris seems to be re-energizing black voters based on limited data, and she will need a big total in Philadelphia, where African-Americans form a plurality of the population. Running behind Biden’s 2020 totals in Philly could spell danger for the Harris campaign, but running at or ahead – you can guess.
Also, watch the margins in counties such as Bucks, Lehigh, Chester, Montgomery (Montco), and Delaware (Delco). Bucks is a suburban Philadelphia county which tends to vote blue, but Hillary Clinton won it by a very narrow margin in 2016, and it typically votes GOP for Congress. Chester, Montco, and Delco are the three other suburban Philly counties, but these are much bluer than Bucks. Kamala Harris needs large margins there to give herself a buffer against the “T” of the state, where Donald Trump will run up huge margins.
Next Up
For our next election preview in four minutes or less, we head down to the Lone Star State to feature the Texas Senate race.
