Trump's Path To Victory In Pennsylvania

Donald Trump won Pennsylvania early on Wednesday morning, all but securing his path to the White House

With 19 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is the biggest prize among the seven swing states and where both candidates had spent the most time canvassing.

Trump's biggest growth since 2020 has been in rural and smaller Rust Belt cities, such as Scranton and Allentown.

It was in these Rust Belt cities that Kamala Harris' campaign may have faltered—she needed to win big in urban Pennsylvania to offset Trump's strong support in rural areas.

Lackawanna County, which contains Scranton, shifted more than 5 percent towards Trump compared to 2020.

While Harris was expected to win it, her margins were down significantly on Joe Biden's. With nearly all votes counted on Wednesday morning, she had 50.9% of the Lackawanna vote.

Scranton, which has one of the largest populations of Irish Americans in any urban area in America, is Biden's home city.

However, Biden has been largely absent from the Harris campaign at a time when she badly needed to shore up support in Pennsylvania.

Lehigh County, which contains Allentown, was an even bigger prize for Harris, as it has a much larger population than Lackawanna, but it too shifted more than 5 percent to Trump compared to 2020.

Harris is likely to win here also but not by enough, claiming just 50.6 percent of the vote—nowhere near as strong as was needed to win Pennsylvania.

Unsurprisingly, she did best in the larger urban areas—pulling 59.2 percent of the vote in Allegheny County, home of Pittsburgh, and 78.5 percent in Philadelphia County.

Other counties in the Philadelphia metropolitan area also voted Harris, but not in margins large enough—60.4 percent in Montgomery County and 55.8 percent in Chester County.

Trump polled extremely well in small, rural counties.

The Appalachian county of Fulton in southern Pennsylvania, which is over 90 percent white, voted 86.2 percent Trump. He won neighboring Bedford County with 83.8 percent.

Newsweek sought email comment from the Trump and Harris campaigns on Wednesday.

One significant factor in Pennsylvania was the cash giveaway by Trump supporter Elon Musk. The Tesla billionaire promised $1 million a day for a voter in one of the seven swing states.

The competition was open to any registered voter who signed a petition in favor of the first and second amendments.

Anyone who referred another voter to sign was given $47 in six of the swing states but that rose to $100 in Pennsylvania, such was the value of the state.

The district attorney in Philadelphia fought him hard, but a court ruled that the giveaway could continue.

In court, Musk's attorney said that the $1 million a day was not a lottery, as the district attorney had claimed, and that the winners were chosen in advance.