Joe Biden has brought on several longtime political operatives to win Pennsylvania, the latest sign the presumptive Democratic nominee’s campaign sees the state’s 20 Electoral College votes as key to claiming the White House.
On Tuesday, Biden’s campaign announced that it hired two new staffers with deep ties to Pennsylvania politics, including a veteran of both President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s efforts in the state. Brendan McPhillips, who will serve as the state director, previously worked as the Iowa state director for Pete Buttigieg, the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor who won the Iowa caucuses earlier this year.
Biden also hired Sincere Harris as a senior adviser for operations in the state. Harris, an alumna of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s campaign, also worked for Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012.
Pennsylvania remains a sore point for Democrats after Clinton’s 2016 loss to Trump. The Keystone State voted Democratic all six times between the 1992 and 2012 presidential elections, forming a “blue wall” with Wisconsin and Michigan. The wall crumbled in 2016 when Trump captured each state, albeit narrowly. And Democrats have sworn since that they would invest heavily in Pennsylvania, particularly in the Philadelphia area, which traditionally offsets Republican strength in more conservative, rural regions.
Since the coronavirus pandemic, Biden has held every single one of his out-of-state visits in Pennsylvania, occasionally driving over the Delaware state line to meet with voters and deliver remarks attacking President Trump. A native of Scranton, Biden launched his campaign from Philadelphia, which is also the home of his campaign headquarters.
Trump’s campaign is working hard to keep the state in the GOP column, with 106 staffers already employed in the state. Vice President Mike Pence is also scheduled to make several stops there this week.
A RealClearPolitics average of polls has Biden with a significant lead over Trump at 6.5 percentage points. In 2016, Trump narrowly won Pennsylvania by under a percentage point.
