PHILADELPHIA – It is fitting that Tuesday night’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump is taking place in the key general election state of Pennsylvania.
Harris and Trump will face off at 9 p.m. ET at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, the largest city in the Keystone State. The debate is the first and potentially only matchup between Harris and Trump.
Both candidates have made several stops this summer in Pennsylvania, one of seven key states that decided the outcome of the 2020 election between Trump and President Biden. And Pennsylvania, along with Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada, will likely determine who wins the White House in November.
WHY THE HARRIS-TRUMP DEBATE IS SO CRUCIAL
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at IBEW Local 5 on September 2, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
As the campaigns and their allied super PACs pour resources into the seven states, more money has been spent on spots in Pennsylvania than in any other battleground. And both sides spent more money booking airtime in the Keystone State than in any other battleground in the eight weeks leading up to Election Day on Nov. 5, according to figures from AdImpact, a leading national ad-tracking firm.
KAMALA HARRIS, DONALD TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: LIVE NEWS
“This is the one state where it’s hard to imagine someone losing and still winning the presidential race,” Mark Harris, a longtime Republican national strategist and adman based in Pittsburgh, told Fox News Digital. “This is clearly ground zero.”
Harris, a veteran of several Republican presidential campaigns, said: “You can see it in the media bookings and the travel schedules of the candidates. Clearly, the Trump campaign and the Harris camp believe this is a must-win situation.”
Former President Trump speaks during a rally at the Cambria County War Memorial in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on August 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Droke)
Mike Butler, a Pittsburgh-based Democratic consultant, told Fox News Digital that when it comes to the White House race, “I don’t think any other state is as swing state as Pennsylvania.”
The campaign isn’t limited to Pennsylvania. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, and Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate, have made numerous stops in the state.
WHO WILL LEAD HARRIS AND TRUMP IN THE DEBATE?
Pennsylvania, along with Michigan and Wisconsin, are the three Rust Belt states that make up the Democrats’ “blue wall.”
The party reliably won all three states for a quarter-century before Trump narrowly won them in the 2016 election to claim the White House.
Four years later, in 2020, Biden won all three states by a slim margin, putting them back in the Democratic camp after defeating Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump
Today, Pennsylvania remains a tight race, with the latest public opinion polls in the state indicating a margin of error between Harris and Trump.
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“It’s going to be a tough fight. I think Trump has some advantages,” Harris said. “But it’s definitely going to be a very close race.”
Butler noted that Pennsylvania had very narrow margins in the last two presidential elections. “Trump’s numbers are pretty strong. I don’t see how he could do any worse than he did in the last two elections, which means it’s going to be a very competitive state,” he said.
ABC News signage is installed in the media center inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center one day before the September 9, 2024, presidential debate in Philadelphia. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
This is not the first time a presidential debate has been held at the National Constitution Center, which opened 21 years ago and is located at the northern end of Independence Mall in Philadelphia’s Old City neighborhood.
The venue hosted a Democratic presidential primary debate in 2008.
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