Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the key state of Pennsylvania Tuesday night, securing the state’s 20 electoral votes and putting the state in the GOP column for the first time since 1988.
Over the final weeks of the race, both campaigns prioritized Pennsylvania. The Trump team saw the Keystone State as a prime opportunity to flip a state that supported President Obama in 2008 and 2012, having devoted campaign resources to the state throughout the final month of the campaign
Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign saw Pennsylvania as their chance to deny Trump the requisite 270 electoral votes and deployed Clinton and top surrogates multiple times, including President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, culminating Monday night with a rally on Independence Mall before over 30,000 supporters.
Despite it’s conservative tilt in the state house and congressional delegation, Pennsylvania has consistently voted Democratic in presidential contests, dating back to Bill Clinton’s victory in 1992. In recent years, GOP presidential nominees have made late plunges in the commonwealth with the hope of possibly flipping it, including Mitt Romney and John McCain.
However, Trump focused on Pennsylvania throughout his general election campaign, having made nearly 30 stops there since winning the nomination in May, including three in the final four days of the campaign. Specifically, they had an intent focus on Western Pennsylvania and blue-collar Democrats who have seen jobs leave the area to lead the charge.
While they succeeded in that region, racking up massive vote totals out west and in the midstate, the campaign struggled to attract supporters in the Philadelphia suburbs, which accounted for over 20 percent of the state’s vote four years ago.
However, the final-week push from the campaign seems to have worked, having deployed Trump himself multiple times, Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to make the case to voters in the area.
Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign was unable to reconstruct the so-called “Obama coalition” — specifically, getting millennial voters and African-Americans to turnout the way they did for President Obama in 2008 and 2012. In the final months, top surrogates barnstormed Philadelphia to boost enthusiasm for the former secretary, including multiple visits by President Obama and Michelle Obama.
Obama himself made a plea to those voters during the Monday rally, telling them that he was betting on them to support Clinton just as they did in both of his victories.
“You bet on me all those years ago, and I will always be grateful for the privilege you gave me to serve. But I’ll be honest with you — I’ve always had the better odds because I’ve always bet on you. And American, I’m betting on you one more time,” Obama said, reading off a litany of voting blocs he was betting on.
“I’m betting that that young people turn out to vote because your future is at stake … I’m betting that African-Americans will vote in big numbers because this journey we’ve been on was never about the color of a president, but the content of his or her character.”
