PITTSBURGH — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz urged a crowd of Pittsburgh Steelers fans to vote early, gathering several hundred of them Tuesday night at the professional football team’s home at Acrisure Stadium.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s Democratic running mate Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned in southwestern Pennsylvania as part of her continued assault on a coveted swing state that could decide the 2024 presidential election.
The race between Harris and former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, in the Keystone State remains tight.
Former Steelers running back Will Allen introduced Walz to a cheering crowd adorned with Steelers hats, T-shirts and Terrible Towels, the team’s official rally towel.
“Give me my moment, I made my first trip to Lambeau Field yesterday,” Walz said, referring to his trip to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and home of the Green Bay Packers football team. “Today I’m going into Steeler territory for the first time, thank you.”
The former high school football coach and teacher visited Wisconsin on Monday, which along with Pennsylvania is on the list of must-win swing states. The others are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina.
Early mail-in voting is already underway in Pennsylvania.
“If you vote by mail, get the damn thing in the mail as soon as possible,” Walz said.
Harris campaigned in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Monday night, then traveled to Michigan on Tuesday.
Attacks on Trump
Like Harris the night before in the northwest corner of the state, Walz awoken crowd in Pittsburgh, attacking Trump’s mental fitness.
“I wouldn’t normally encourage this, but go and look at this guy, look at his town hall. “He stopped answering questions and stood frozen on stage for 30 minutes while they played his Spotify playlist,” Walz said, referring to Trump’s Monday night town hall outside Philadelphia.
“If it was your grandfather, you would take the keys,” Walz laughed. “And I tell you this: Look, it would be funny if this guy wasn’t running for president of the United States.”
In Erie, Harris warned that Trump is “unnerved” and has played video clips of the former president explaining his potential plans to utilize the military to silence the “enemy from within.”
On Tuesday morning, Trump wrote on social media that Harris’ health report was “really bad.”
“With all the problems she has, the real question is whether she should run for president!” – he wrote in Truth Social.
Harris’ doctor report published Saturday describes her “in excellent health.”
Walz on the farm
While Walz wore a white shirt and sports jacket while talking to fans, earlier in the day he had donned a flannel shirt and he told fans gathered outside a barn in Lawrence County that he and Harris would fight for America’s farmers and resources for rural people.
The governor also emphasized his good faith as a veteran, hunter and gun owner. His speech can be viewed in full on C-SPAN.
The Harris-Walz campaign posted plan Tuesday for Rural America, which promised to strengthen rural health care and support petite farms.
Before heading into town, Walz also stopped at a garden center and cafe in Butler County.
The pro-Democratic U.S. Rural Political Action Committee pointed to Tuesday’s economic analysis that shows Trump’s promised tariffs will put farmers out of business as exports decline.
An analysis by the University of Illinois Department of Agriculture and Consumer Economics shows that Pennsylvania farmers could lose $111 million on soybean exports, $50 million on corn, $22 million on beef and $20 million on wheat.
“This new research literally shows that Trump’s tariffs will bankrupt Pennsylvania farmers,” Chris Gibbs, an Ohio corn and soybean farmer and president of Rural Voices USA, said in a statement Tuesday. “Exports are critical to Pennsylvania farmers, and they cannot withstand the sharp decline in exports and prices that this research portends.”
Trump defended its tariff proposals at the Economic Club of Chicago earlier Tuesday. During an hour-long interview, he told Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait that he would spur a U.S. manufacturing boom by setting tariffs “so high, so terrible, so disgusting” that companies would relocate.
Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio is scheduled to campaign in Pittsburgh on Thursday.
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