Kamala Harris had a near-perfect start to her Presidential campaign.
Now the political winds are shifting during the closing weeks of the race.
And a top Republican exposed the one wrong move Kamala Harris made that will haunt her.
The swing area of the most important swing state shifts red
The road to the White House runs through the Rust Belt swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Vice President Kamala Harris will likely need to sweep all three states to have a path to victory on Election Night.
The media is starting to sound the alarm about her struggles with working-class voters in those states.
Kamala is a San Francisco Democrat who doesn’t have the connection that President Joe Biden had with the demographic.
Pennsylvania is the biggest swing state this year where both Presidential candidates are spending the most time and money.
The swingy northeastern part of the state could decide who wins Pennsylvania on Election Day.
Biden was able to improve upon Hillary Clinton’s margins in northeastern Pennsylvania on his way to a close win in the state in the 2020 Election.
Donald Trump looks to gain ground in northeastern Pennsylvania
Biden was born in Scranton in northeastern Pennsylvania and had an appeal to voters in the region that Kamala hasn’t been able to develop.
The white working-class area is a place where former President Donald Trump’s campaign thinks he can make inroads.
Trump hit Scranton for a campaign rally as he looks to turn Lackawanna County where it’s located red.
Scranton-based Republican consultant Vince Galko was skeptical about Kamala’s chances in the traditional union Democrat area.
“This area is still predominantly Catholic, still predominantly conservative,” Galko said. “We have what we used to call Reagan Democrats, or late Gov. [Robert] Casey Democrats, who were either pro-gun or pro-life Democrats, who have always voted Democratic.”
“They probably would have given Biden one more vote,” Galko added. “I’m not sure they’re going to give that vote to Harris.”
Northeastern Pennsylvania used to be a coal mining region and home to manufacturing.
The area has suffered the same industrial decline as much of the Rust Belt.
Union members and Catholics in Scranton used to make up the base of the Democrat Party.
But working-class voters in areas like this have been swinging hard to Trump since 2016.
Susanne Green, who grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania, served as a volunteer at Trump’s rally in Scranton.
“This valley used to be full of factories,” Green said. “There’s no factories anymore. Everybody’s out of work. And it’s been like that for generations.”
Green was a Democrat her entire life until she became a Republican in 2016 because of Trump.
Trump’s economic message of unleashing American energy production and reviving manufacturing resonates with voters in the area.
Charlie Spano, a former candidate for Scranton Mayor, told Politico that Kamala made a mistake picking Minnesota Governor Tim Walz over Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as his running mate.
“Putting Shapiro on the ticket would go a long way toward keeping Pennsylvania blue,” Spano said. “And she blew it.”
