Clinton Lays Out Strategy For Winning Western Pennsylvania
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- With 20 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is a big prize for any presidential candidate.
And with most polls showing a neck-and-neck race in Pennsylvania -- and maybe even a slight lead for Republican Donald Trump -- Democrat Hillary Clinton intends to campaign hard in the state.
But it's this region, traditionally Democratic but voting Republican more and more, that is going to get special attention.
Call us battleground zero.
Clinton was in Pittsburgh last Saturday, while Trump was here five weeks ago, targeting western Pennysylvania with a message aimed at Democratic blue collar workers.
"I know you've been through some very, very tough times, but we're going to make it better, and we're going to make it better fast," Trump told workers in Monessen on June 28.
Local Democratic leaders concede Trump has an edge in the outlying Democratic counties.
"Is it hard to sell Hillary Clinton to Fayette County voters?" KDKA political editor Jon Delano asked Fayette County Democratic Party chairman Jim Davis.
"Yeah, well, you know, it is," said Davis.
"Donald Trump is playing strongly in our county, largely because of the coal issue," added Maddie Snyder, chair of the Greene County Democratic Party.
So when KDKA political editor Jon Delano met with Secretary Clinton and her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine, he was blunt.
Delano: "How are you going to close the deal with people in this region many of whom are white working class males, Democrats, who are voting Republican consistently in presidential elections? How do you close that deal?"
Clinton: "Well, first I am going to close it by talking about what I am going to do and proving it by what I have done. I represented New York, your neighbor, and did so by working to bring jobs back, to create new jobs, and to give people a chance to make the most out of their own lives. I have a track record."
Clinton says she wants workers here to contrast her record with that of Donald Trump, and, she says, "making sure that those same voters understand what Donald Trump has done to people that worked for him, painters and plumbers, marble installers, glass installers, small business people."
"Jon, he abused them. He took their labor and refused to pay them," Clinton said.
And when it comes to NAFTA and other trade deals, U.S. Sen. Kaine added, "Trade deals have to pass a high hurdle."
"The hurdle is do they create jobs, do they raise wages, do they advance our national security. The deal that's on the table now, the TPP, does involve some renegotiation of NAFTA, but it's got some fatal flaws in it, where it doesn't meet the standards that we want to see trade deals meet," he said.
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So will this strategy work for Democrats?
Hard to know.
In 2012, Barack Obama lost every county in our region except Allegheny and still won Pennsylvania because he won Philadelphia big and was able to keep the race close in the outlying counties here.
Clinton clearly hopes to do the same.
One thing is certain. We should see a lot of both Clinton and Trump in the 14 weeks until we elect our next president.
