“If the count's very close, we're going to get into Lawsuits & Recounts and all the rest of it – so everybody needs to buckle up.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Texas Insider Report) — Former President Donald Trump set the tone for the final stretch of the presidential race last weekend when he took to the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania. For just a moment, he turned away from the crowd for the briefest of seconds – just as he did 12 weeks ago – before continuing... “As I was saying.”
He was starting on Saturday just where he left off on July 13th, before he was shot.
Those four words told everyone – perhaps even more so than when he raised his fist toward the crowd and shouted “Fight, Fight, Fight” – that he was a man who was not going to be knocked down, and that he was willing to leave everything on the field to take care of unfinished business in the 2024 race for the White House.
Today, Democrats in Pennsylvania still have a Voter Registration advantage – but it has shrunk from 1.2 million in 2008 to just 325,000 today, a rightward shift that has not gone unnoticed.
Since the first assassination attempt on Mr. Trump, Republicans in Pennsylvania and North Carolina have registered nearly twice as many voters as Democrats have during the month of September, according to new data reported by Michael Pruser of Decision Desk HQ.
North Carolina, another vital battleground state, saw over 19,000 Republicans register to vote in September – nearly double the number Democrats registered there according to Pruser's data.
And even the Mail-In Balloting effort in Pennsylvania – long dominated by the Democrats since the COVID-19 election cycle of 2020 – has for the first time seen Republicans outpacing Democrats.
Decision Desk HQ's political data analyst posted on X Tuesday evening that he has been tracking Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballot requests and returns since the primary in 2020.
“Today was the first time in just over four years (10 statewide elections) that Republicans out requested Democrats in mail absentees for the previous day,” he posted, showing a chart with 8,299 Republicans requesting mail-in ballots – and 8,079 Democrats doing the same.
The real test, though, will come in the rural counties of the Keystone State."If Trump loses those areas by a million or less votes, we win. However, if we lose by more than a million, we likely lose the state."
As he sees the race unfolding, whoever wins the counties outside Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, such as Cambria, Luzerne, Beaver, and Erie, will win the state.
“Don’t forget that in 2020, Trump got more votes in Philadelphia than he did in 2016. I suspect he’ll do even better there (this year.) Now is that going to be hundreds of thousands? No. It is going to be tens of thousands,” Urban said.“WAIT! Are you telling us that Pennsylvania added more Republican voters in the last month than any other state?” Presler wrote on X.
“My heart is singing a tune so loudly, I think the sun, moon, & stars can hear it!”
And, Mr. Trump will be in Reading and Scranton today, with Vance back in Johnstown on Saturday holding rallies.
Democrat candidates Kamala Harris and her V.P. pick Tim Walz have held private invite-only events in Pittsburgh, Erie, Wilkes-Barre, and at the Pittsburgh airport in the past month. Barack Obama will hold a Harris event – another that appears to be invite-only – on Thursday evening at the University of Pittsburgh Fitzgerald Field House. The location holds around 400 people.
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Trump stressed how he wanted to honor Mr. Comperatore and his family, explaining in detail what would happen:
“There will be a moment of silence, then one of the greatest opera singers in the world will sing Ave Maria,” Trump said.
Trump looked somber for a moment talking about Corey Comperatore – as outside in the stands Saturday were Comperatore's widow Helen and their daughters.
There was a "fallen comrade" section where Corey and the family were sitting that day, standing as a sentinel to honor his life.
Rose Arnold and Teresa Boyd were at that event 12 weeks ago as temperatures hovered near the 100 degree mark. They stood in the exact same place Saturday as they did back in July.
Boyd said one of the things that stuck out for her that day was how orderly and calmly everyone left after the shooting,
“It was surreal – I was really proud of how everyone comported themselves that day, and I knew a lot of us same people would be back today.
“It was historic on July 13th – and him coming back for us, not himself, is just as historic. I wanted to be part of that,” she said.
Kyle Suggs came all the way up from Raleigh, North Carolina, to be part of the moment. He is part of the growing coalition of young black men who are inspired by Trump – who he says understands the problems families are facing across the country, and has the backbone to fix them.
“I like the fact that he speaks to the American people, which is why he’s doing so well with the middle class and the working class.
"Its why he’s bringing a huge coalition of people together. That is why I like him,” he said.
Four years ago, the results in Pennsylvania took days to be determined, due in large part, to the more than two million mail-in ballots cast because of the Covid pandemic. Major media outlets didn’t project Biden as the winner until four days after the election.
Sttate Election Officials say mail-in voting is expected to be lower this year, but the state reports it has already received 217,000 completed ballots. By Pennsylvania law, those ballots cannot be opened and tabulated until election night.
“And if the count is very close, we're going to get into lawsuits and recounts and all the rest of it – so everybody needs to buckle up.” Snyder said.
With its 19 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is the U.S.'s fifth most populous state – and is the lynchpin of swing-state electoral firewalls for both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Currently the RealClearPolitics averages in Pennsylvania continue to show the state is in a statistical tie, with Donald Trump sometimes showing a slight lead of up to 2 points, with less than four weeks to go.
