Opinion: Trump’s doing all he can to send Harris GOP voters she needs

WASHINGTON CROSSING, Pa. — Pennsylvania, the center of the universe for the presidential election, is a statistical dead heat in polling right now between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Harris will need help from Republicans and independent voters who reject Trump’s increasingly erratic bid for a second term if she’s going to win this state.
That’s why Harris was here Wednesday, appealing directly to Republicans in the crowd, on stage with her and paying attention via news coverage. She spoke one day after President Joe Biden swung through the state Tuesday and Trump visited on Monday.
Among the three “blue wall” states, along with Michigan and Wisconsin, Pennsylvania is seen as the linchpin to the presidency.
Win here, win it all. Harris needs Republican help.
The Harris campaign stop in this bucolic corner of Bucks County, a Philadelphia suburb, was an open appeal to moderate voters after Biden rallied the local Democratic base in a Philadelphia union hall Tuesday, touting his vice president as the the party’s “next generation.”
“In a typical election year, you all being here with me might be a bit surprising. Dare I say unusual,” Harris said to the assembled Republicans with a chuckle before turning serious. “But not in this election.”
Trump, earlier in the day, appeared at a Fox News “town hall,” where he repeated his clearly unconstitutional claim that his political foes are “the enemy from within” and might be dealt with by the military if he becomes president again.
The GOP nominee could not have queued up Harris any better for the day. It was exactly the sort of deranged discourse she came to Bucks County to decry. The crowd booed Trump as she recounted his words.
“He considers any American who doesn’t support him or bend to his will to be an enemy to our country,” Harris said. “It is clear that Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged. And he is seeking unchecked power.”
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She vowed to work across the aisle if elected, to appoint a Republican for her Cabinet and to “establish a council on bipartisan solutions” to advise her on “the most pressing issues facing our country.”
That is the exact inverse of what Trump offers us – a long season of retribution fueled by his many illogical grievances.
Any Democrat hoping to win Pennsylvania needs strong turnout from their party in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs, known as the four “collar” counties.
Democrats outnumbered Republicans in Bucks County by a sliver in voter registration in 2020, but that reversed this summer, with Republicans taking a 1 percentage point lead. The roads leading to Washington Crossing Historic Park, where Harris spoke, were lined with campaign signs backing her or Trump.
Former U.S. Rep. Jim Greenwood, a Republican who represented this area for six terms and opposes Trump, called him “a malignant narcissist” unfit for office during Wednesday’s rally.
“Trump cares only about himself and his ambition,” Greenwood said, citing the former president’s failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump lost Bucks County in 2016 by less than 1 percentage point while winning Pennsylvania by less than 1 point.
Biden defeated Trump in Bucks County by 4.37 points in 2020 while winning the state by just over a point.
In Philadelphia, where Biden was often jokingly referred to as Pennsylvania’s third senator during the 36 years he served in that chamber from nearby Delaware, he went after Trump in pointed, personal terms.
Biden repeatedly labeled Trump “a loser,” from his business bankruptcies to his civil court judgments and criminal conviction to his debate last month with Harris, which he said she clearly won while noting Trump has since refused any further debates. He accused Trump of lying about conditions on the country’s southern border.
“Trump calls that a hellscape, talks about America being a failed nation,” Biden said. “Trump says we’re losers, but the only loser I know is Donald Trump.”
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Philadelphia is the focus of perennial campaign news stories about conflicts between Democratic campaigns and the local party and questions about whether enough is being done to turn out voters. Biden hit that note head on.
“How you go, what you turn out, is going to determine the election,” the president said.
Trump took just 15.37% of the vote in Philadelphia in 2016, in a city where Democrats have long outnumbered Republicans 7to 1.
He still predictably lost the city in 2020 but grew his support to nearly 18% that year, collecting nearly 24,000 more votes than four years earlier.
Trump’s town hall in Montgomery County on Monday raised just one question – what on earth is he doing? The event unraveled on stage after a pair of medical emergencies in the crowd. So he spent about 40 minutes just calling out songs for his campaign staff to play as he bopped along on stage.
That didn’t look designed to boost his chances in Montgomery County, where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans 49% to 34%. Trump took about 37% of the vote there in 2016 and about 36% four years ago.
With this race so close, a Harris victory hinging on Pennsylvania might rely on an element outside of her control – Trump’s behavior. And let’s just say it – Trump may not have control of his behavior, either.
She needs him to keep saying the crazy part out loud, to continue to show voters who he really is and what he really is about. If he does, Trump may be the most influential Republican to bolster Harris’ bid for the presidency.
Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan