Whether it’s abortion, freedoms, or character—Pennsylvania voters are sharply divided on who and why they support their candidate.
LANCASTER, Pa.—Nazir Mbami is a 17-year-old black man and Army National Guard recruit who will turn 18 by Election Day. On Oct. 20, he donned a red “Make America Great Again” hat and attended a town hall event with former President Donald Trump in Lancaster—pledging to cast his first-ever vote for the Republican presidential nominee in this year’s election.
Mbami complained about recent comments made by Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. “She went on ‘The View’ and said there was nothing that she would change about how Joe Biden ran his [administration],” Mbami said.
“We had four years Donald Trump and four years Joe Biden, where we [can] literally compare and contrast where and when the other person went wrong … showing me that if I don’t like [Biden] now, then I probably won’t like [Harris] in the future.”
Mbami is an independent voter in Pennsylvania, a state whose 19 electoral college votes make it the most influential battleground state in the 2024 election. Voters like Mbami matter most to Harris and Trump’s campaigns, because they could determine who wins the election.
On average, polls in Pennsylvania show that Trump has between a 0.4 and 0.8 percentage point lead over Harris, highlighting that every vote in Pennsylvania counts.
The Epoch Times interviewed dozens of voters across the state to gauge the trends that will affect the state’s results.
Different Problems, Different Solutions
When asked about the major policy issues affecting their choices, Pennsylvania voters supporting Harris and Trump differed greatly in their responses. Trump supporters reported the state of the economy and illegal immigration as their top issues, while Harris backers emphasized abortion, individual rights, and personal character as their primary considerations.
None of the voters in either group spoke of these issues in similar terms, indicating a wide gap in perception between Harris’s and Trump’s coalitions ahead of the election.
By Arjun Singh
