The White House said Harris is scheduled to return just three days after spending Labor Day with President Joe Biden in the city. Harris’s running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), will also visit Pittsburgh in addition to a stop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Thursday. No further details have been released about the public appearances of either candidate to date.

Pennsylvania is the nation’s most populous swing state, at 19 electoral votes, and is considered the most important state for a Harris victory.

As of Monday, Democrats have 350,000 more registered voters than Republicans, according to this week’s data from the Department of State. But that margin is significantly down from 2008 when Democrats’ registration lead was at more than 1.2 million voters, and former President Barack Obama bested the late Republican Sen. John McCain by nearly 10 percentage points. So far this year, more than 44,000 Democrats have switched to the Republican Party, with just over 17,000 Republicans switching to become Democrats. Just over 16% of registered voters in the state are independents.

But in Pittsburgh, Democrats hold a massive registration lead, and the last Republican won the mayor’s office just under 100 years ago. This big switch in the city began during the Great Depression when former President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the New Deal coalition.

While the national media largely pays attention to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia because of their large populations, in recent years, Pennsylvania statewide election results have been decided by voter shifts in less populous regions such as the state’s Luzerne, Westmoreland, Cambria, Northampton, and Erie counties.

Chris Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College, said candidates who visit those counties will help widen their margins for a victory.

“Those are the counties that put Donald Trump over the top in 2016, and in 2020, Joe Biden was able to regain some of those voters,” he said.

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So far this cycle, Harris has visited Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and stopped at a field office, gas station, and diner in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. But Walz’s visits to Lancaster and Erie counties show that Democrats are trying to peel off the same voters Biden did in 2020.

Former President Donald Trump has visited Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pennslvania, as well as Luzerne, Butler, and Cambria counties. The former president will visit Harrisburg again tonight for a town hall hosted by Fox News.

Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), has visited several of the Philadelphia collar counties, including Westmoreland and Erie counties, so far.