Walz flies to Pennsylvania Wednesday on his first solo excursion for Harris ticket

Gov. Tim Walz heads out early Wednesday to the pivotal state of Pennsylvania for his first solo campaign swing on behalf of the Democratic presidential ticket led by Vice President Kamala Harris.

Walz will leave Minnesota aboard his own campaign plane accompanied by First Lady Gwen Walz. He plans stops in Lancaster and Pittsburgh on Wednesday before finishing the trip in Erie. His schedule lists unspecified “campaign engagements” before his final stop, a rally in Erie at 6 p.m. Thursday.

The governor will try to build enthusiasm and momentum among voters who will determine which candidate receives the state’s 19 electoral college votes.

Both Democrats and Republicans consider Pennsylvania critical to capturing the 270 electoral votes needed to win in November. Pennsylvania is among 18 “blue wall” states that Democrats won in every presidential election from 1992 through 2012.

Republican former President George W. Bush managed to win two national elections without capturing Pennsylvania, but in 2016, Trump flipped Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania red. In 2020, Biden turned all three states back to blue and won — a feat the Harris-Walz campaign would like to replicate.

Harris and Walz made their first joint appearance together a month ago in Philadelphia, a declaration of the state’s significance.

Former President Donald Trump is also campaigning in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. He will be in Harrisburg to record a town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity that will air later in the evening. His running mate JD Vance was in Erie last week, where he focused on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, calling Kamala Harris “disgraceful” for not firing anyone for service members’ deaths.

Walz traveled to Milwaukee for a solo rally on Labor Day, but he hasn’t made a multistop, multiday swing by himself yet, and it remains to be seen how he will be acknowledged and received outside of Minnesota. Harris chose Minnesota’s second-term governor as her running mate on Aug. 6. The two spent much of the last month preparing for and attending the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Harris spent Labor Day in Detroit and Pittsburgh. Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will be in Allentown, Pa., on Saturday.

The vice president made her first joint campaign appearance with President Joe Biden on Monday in Pittsburgh. She marked the day by revealing her position that U.S. Steel should remain domestically owned. That declaration was in line with the White House’s opposition to a planned sale of the company to Japan’s Nippon Steel.

Harris called U.S. Steel “an historic American company and it is vital for our country to maintain strong American steel companies.”

This story contains material from the Associated Press.