Live updates: Walz campaigns in eastern Pennsylvania on Wednesday for his first solo trip

LANCASTER, PA. – Gov. Tim Walz is campaigning in the pivotal state of Pennsylvania for his first solo trip on behalf of the Democratic presidential ticket led by Vice President Kamala Harris.

Walz has stops in Lancaster and Pittsburgh on Wednesday before finishing the trip Thursday in Erie with a 6 p.m. rally.

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

Republican 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.

After a drive of more than an hour, much of it on small two-way winding rural roads, Walz stopped at Maple Bottom Farm. He bottle-fed a Guernsey calf.

“There you go sweetie,” he said as he held the bottle.

When the calf fumbled with the bottle, Walz adjusted. “You’re so close, sweetie,” he said. “I was making you work too hard.”

A manager at the farm said they don’t process the milk. Arden Hills-based Land o’ Lakes gets the milk every other week and processes it for cheese and ice cream.

Walz stopped and sat at a picnic table, talking to the owners and a teacher whose subjects include agriculture. They talked about the need for workers and education. Land price, infrastructure and labor are concerns.

Walz noted that once the community loses ag infrastructure, the pressure on communities is huge.

At one point, Hope stood up with a younger girl and announced, “We’re going to look at the flowers,” and they wandered over to the expansive hillside field full of yellow and purple wildflowers.

Hope returned and announced, “We have ice cream.”

Her dad said, “don’t steal my ice cream.” He had a bowl of butter pecan ice cream and cheese curds.

The Walz motorcade made a very short stop at the Milk Shake Factory in Moon Township, Pa., near the airport. He initially made a joke about not ordering vanilla before settling on the mint cookies and cream shake.

He and daughter Hope ordered six milk chocolate pretzels and six dark chocolate pretzels and some stroopwafels.

He was inside for about 5 minutes before the vans were loaded up again and headed to the next stop, which we’ve been promised is a fun, outdoor event.

The workers in the store seemed nonplussed by the governor’s entourage and went about filling his order. Again, the motorcade jammed up the suburban parking lot, so the best people-watching is checking out those who find a campaign roadblock while going about their business in the strip mall. There’s a Mexican Grill, a smoothie shop, a Jersey Mike’s subs, an AT&T store and a Hilton Garden Inn across the parking out which looks, feels and smells like fresh blacktop.

Pennsylvania State Rep. Ismail Smith-Wade-El, a Democrat who represents the area, told reporters that when Democrats win in Lancaster County, they win elections. “The voters here, we make sure Pennsylvania goes the way we want,” he said, adding that the path to the White House runs through the county.

Smith-Wade-El said, “I love this guy,” when asked for his thoughts about Walz.

The legislator was among the officials who greeted Walz on the tarmac at the airport and at the volunteer stop.

He praised the work Walz did in Minnesota, governing with a one-vote majority in the Senate and passing free meals for school kids among other things. He said Walz was “making things better for working people.”

Next stop: A Lancaster County Democrats volunteer gathering in the basement of a downtown office building.

Before he spoke to volunteers, Walz said he’d been informed of a school shooting in Georgia. “The White House has been briefed on it. This is tragic. We don’t know any of the details on it yet, but it’s a situation that’s all too common and our hearts are out there right now,” he said.

He chatted with some 30 volunteers in the basement, telling them that if they got someone on the phone, they should hand it to him.

He then spoke with several friends and family members of the volunteers. “Tim Walz here, how are you doing?” He’d chitchat and say, “I hope we can earn your vote,” and then brag to the person on the phone about the volunteer work their friend or relative was doing. “Your sister’s here working like crazy,” he said to one.

As Walz worked the phones and chatted with volunteers, his daughter Hope did the same thing on her own. She posed for photos and thanked the volunteers. She told one volunteer that she’d graduated from college a year ago. “I’m currently not working; I took a bit of a leave,” she said.

The governor spoke for a few minutes.

“We’re here to say thank you,” Walz said.

He ticked off the broad Harris-Walz agenda: reproductive care, good public schools, infrastructure and jobs that pay a livable wage.

One local reporter shouted a question, asking what the administration would do about lowering prices. Walz didn’t respond, and his aides admonished reporters not to interfere with the event.

“You could be anywhere. You could do anything with your time,” Walz said to the volunteers. “You chose to be here.”

He said the path to victory runs through Lancaster County, possibly even the basement where the volunteers were. “This is going to be door to door, phone call to phone call,” he said.

He said the Republican ticket is “rooting against America.”

Walz noted that Minnesota and Pennsylvania have a lot in common, but “Super Bowl rings is not one of them.”

Walz ended with, “Let’s do it with joy. Let’s do it with optimism. Let’s go win this thing.”

Walz’s first stop was the Cherry Hill Orchards and Farm, a store with fresh fruit and rows of fresh-baked pies and donuts.

Walz and his daughter, Hope, chatted with manager Ryan Shenk, the manager of the fragrant store that has been in place for 50 years. The two loaded up on Whoopie Pies and apple cider donuts, saying they planned to bring them to volunteers. The governor and his daughter both wore camouflage baseball caps. Hope’s read “Harris-Walz.” She wore a pink shirt and cargo pants. He was dressed comfortably as well.

“What am I looking at in a Whoopie Pie?” Walz asked the manager.

The manager described it as an affordable cake — two small cakes about the size of a donut with a layer of vanilla frosting or cream cheese or some other seasonal flavor.

“We’re pumpkin people,” Hope Walz said.

The governor’s motorcade of more than 12 vehicles overwhelmed the corner parking lot for the 5-minute stop, his first after landing in Lancaster.

“I have no problem picking out donuts,” Walz said as he looked at the rows of baked goods and asked how long the store had been there.

Walz asked one woman how many donuts she makes every day. She said, “Dozens and dozens.”

Then it was back into the motorcade with lights and sirens cruising through the cornfields and houses en route to the next stop.

Walz took off from Signature Aviation at MSP on a Harris-Walz 737 bound for Lancaster around 8:30 a.m., landing about two hours later under clear, sunny skies in the Pennsylvania countryside, a mix of cornfields, old colonial houses with porches and lush green lawns.

As the motorcade pulled out of the airport, some 200 supporters stood along the roadside with signs that read, “Trump for Prison” and “Teachers for Walz.”