Longing for Pennsylvania: Biden banks on his Scranton roots for 2024 electoral advantage

Pennsylvania is the ultimate battleground for 2024, with the White House, Senate, and House all poised to flip based on how voters here cast their ballots. In this series, Pining for Pennsylvania: Unlocking the crucial Keystone State, the Washington Examiner will look at the demographics, politics, and key policies that have made Pennsylvania the must-watch state of the year. Part Four, below, looks at how President Joe Biden is touting his Scranton roots to win Pennsylvania again.

SCRANTON, Pennsylvania — President Joe Biden is pouring his campaign resources into Pennsylvania, hoping to leverage his hometown as well as deep connections to the battleground state to catapult himself to the White House for a second term in November.

Biden visited the state in a three-day trek last week, making a stop at his childhood home in Scranton while also stopping at local businesses to speak with city officials and supporters. The excursion underscored a key point Biden has sought to make while on the campaign trail: Pennsylvania is his home turf that he is ready to defend.

“When I look at the economy, I don’t look at it through the eyes of Mar-a-Lago. I look at it through the eyes of Scranton,” Biden told supporters last week of his GOP competitor’s Florida estate. “These are the competing visions for our economy that raise questions of fundamental fairness at the heart of this campaign.”

Pennsylvania has become a crucial battleground for presidential candidates, especially after former President Donald Trump managed to flip the state in Republicans’ favor in 2020 and defeat then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by just 0.72 percentage points. However, Biden was able to flip the state back to blue and defeat Trump by 1.2 points, in large part because of his dominance in Lackawanna County, home to Scranton.

Now, four years later, Biden is tapping into his Scranton roots to motivate voter turnout.

Neighborhood streets throughout Scranton are lined with Biden 2024 signs, with many residents taking pride in the fact the current president claims the city as his hometown. During his three-day trip, the president was greeted by supporters waving signs and cheering on his motorcade as he drove through the city.

The short trip helped to humanize the president among his voter base, with many saying it showcased his neighborly charm.

“President Biden is a down-to-earth person. He is from our hometown, and when he speaks, it’s like speaking to a neighbor. Like he is a genuine person,” said Joe Valdala, a teacher who lives in Scranton. “He’s just like the guy next door, you know, but happens to be the president.”

Several voters also praised Biden for his work since being in office, pointing to his infrastructure policies as having real-world effects in their neighborhoods.

“I’ll say our community has definitely seen the investment that Joe Biden has made and through the American Rescue Plan,” said Andrew Cutillo, a deputy solicitor for the city of Scranton, referring to Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan passed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cutillo pointed to roads in the city that haven’t been paved in years but will now be repaired through federal funding. The Scranton resident noted how he often plays soccer with a neighbor outside, but because of cracks in the street, the child can often fall and get hurt.

That experience, and need for local change, is not lost on Biden, according to Cutillo.

“I’m just thinking that, like, Joe Biden can easily see himself as my neighbor kid, you know, playing in the streets and the fact that he deserves a nice paved alley behind his house to kick a soccer ball around. I think that’s obvious to him,” Cutillo said.

Local officials also praised Biden for his economic policies benefitting local businesses in Scranton, particularly the Inflation Reduction Act.

Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti pointed to funds made available through Biden’s signature economic policy that was funneled to local projects in Scranton, arguing residents in the city view Biden as someone who understands their upbringing.

“He sees the world from a point of view of a family who’s trying to pay the bills, trying to make sure that the kids have opportunity and they’ve got a fair shot at success,” Cognetti said. “I think people understand that the president is looking out for them, that he understands small business. He understands what it’s like to be at a table as a family and having to take the tough news that they have to move because their father lost their job.”

“We’re very proud that he’s from Scranton,” she added. “I would say he makes it easy for us. … He put together the policies and the programs that show that he’s a kid from Scranton.”

While other Scranton residents acknowledged the economic strain on the country over the last four years, many don’t blame Biden for the higher costs.

“When we’re coming out of the pandemic, everything was gonna go up,” Valdala said. “I don’t think that’s the president’s fault, no matter who is the president. It could be FDR, it can be George Washington. It could be any president. … It just so happens to be President Biden right now.”

But not all voters are so convinced. Many Republican-leaning voters in other parts of the state have criticized the president for his economic policies, lamenting high costs for groceries and gas over the last four years.

“Pennsylvania is feeling the economy,” said Eric Filer, a resident of the neighboring Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. “Grocery prices are up twice as much from when Trump was originally elected to office. So I think it’s hitting everyday people in the wallet, and that’s basically going to flip the ballot.”

Other Trump supporters have brushed off the narrative that Pennsylvania is Biden’s to win, arguing instead there’s been a steady growth of support toward the former president.

“It’s not his home state. I don’t believe it,” Kim Becker, a Republican voter from Bucks County, told the Washington Examiner. “This is Trump country. Pennsylvania is more red.”

That growing sense of Biden opposition in counties outside of Lackawanna could negatively affect the president, especially as recent population shifts in the state have changed the playing field heading into November.

Pennsylvania has experienced major population losses in several Biden-won districts, including Democratic strongholds in cities such as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Overall, counties that voted for Trump in 2020 increased by about 4,500 people over the last four years, while those in the counties that backed Biden declined by more than 45,000, according to a report by the Franklin and Marshall University Center for Opinion Research.

That shift has raised questions about whether Trump could have an edge over Biden in 2024. However, some experts have rejected that suggestion, arguing Democratic voters who have moved out of big cities into smaller towns is not a “major seismic shift.”

“There’s just no substantive outcome,” one Democratic political operative told the Washington Examiner. “If we were losing tens of thousands of Philadelphians to New Jersey, that would be a problem. But we’re not. It’s folks who just, like, went to the ‘burbs during the pandemic and are still here, still active, and still voting.”

But Tuesday’s primary could signal trouble for Trump in the Keystone State. Trump managed to win about 83% of the vote with the majority of the ballots counted, with Nikki Haley siphoning off about 17% support despite dropping out of the race seven weeks ago. Biden contended with an uncommitted write-in campaign and about 7% support for Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), but the protest votes were not as pronounced on the Democratic side.

Trump has hosted various campaign events in the Keystone State, including a rally last weekend that attracted thousands of supporters. During that event, Trump used the opportunity to rail against Biden on the president’s home turf.

Trump attacked Biden on a slew of policy areas, spending much of his time addressing the crisis at the southern border, a key campaign issue that Trump has focused on since his first presidential run in 2016.

“We’re going to stop the invasion and Joe Biden’s illegal aliens back home,” Trump said. “We had the safest border, the most secure border in the history of our country, four years ago.”

Biden’s team has pointed to the opening of 24 campaign offices across the state as part of efforts to win Pennsylvania, while the Trump campaign has refrained from implementing a similar strategy. Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita told the Morning Call that the former president’s campaign is “fueled by passionate volunteers who care about saving America and firing Joe Biden” but would not “discuss the specifics of our strategy, timing, and tactics with members of the News Media.”

The increased focus on Pennsylvania sets the stage for what is likely to be a bitter election, which is already appearing to result in personal attacks. Those attacks especially came into view during Trump’s rally, who decried Biden as a “stupid person.”

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Biden has also had his fair share of personal attacks against the former president, often calling Trump a “threat to democracy,” referring to his claims that the 2020 election was rigged in Biden’s favor.

Pennsylvania remains one of the seven battleground states that will determine which candidate will seize control of the White House.

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