Tuesday marks three weeks until Election Day, and both the Harris and Trump presidential campaigns have been targeting the swing state of Pennsylvania.
Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz, the wife of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, visited Altoona on Tuesday. She's touring Pennsylvania to campaign for her husband and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Now, I know here in Pennsylvania you are carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders," Walz said. "I see it when I look at you and I feel it in almost every call center, volunteer center I walk in.”
Walz was speaking at a volunteer appreciation event in downtown Altoona.
“I've been across Pennsylvania, literally, in the past few days and meeting volunteers and people like all of you," Walz said. "You are knocking doors and you are making calls as we speak here and registering voters and winning votes, one neighbor at a time.”
Blair County is predominantly Republican. Walz told about 24 volunteers who turned out that her husband and Harris are the underdogs in the race, but she is confident the Democrats can win if enough volunteers continue to help the campaign.
Stephen Lawson, a volunteer at the event, said it can feel like an uphill battle to raise support for Harris in the area.
“But, you know, (we’re) always good for a fight, though," Lawson said.
Lawson said he supports Harris’ proposal to expand Medicare and caps on insulin prices.
"You know, I'm over 65. I'm not going to say exactly how much over," Lawson laughed. "But … health care is a big issue with the older population."
Both the Trump and Biden administrations instituted $35 insulin copay caps for certain Medicare recipients, but Biden’s caps apply to all insulin products covered by any Medicare Part D or Part B plan. Trump’s applied only to some insulin products covered by a subset of Part D plans.
Pennsylvania has 19 electoral votes, the most of any swing state. Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by more than 40,000 votes in Pennsylvania. President Joe Biden, a Scranton native, beat Trump by about 80,000 votes in the state in 2020.
Neither Harris or Trump has visited the 13-county WPSU listening area yet. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance will host a rally in Williamsport on Wednesday.
