Biden closes his campaign in Pennsylvania: “Tomorrow will be the beginning of a new day”
Joe Biden closed his presidential campaign in Pennsylvania on Monday night and again criticized the handling that President Donald Trump has given to the coronavirus pandemic. Biden also promised to unite the country in crisis if he succeeds on Tuesday.
The Democratic candidate returned to Pennsylvania, a key contested state, where he began his campaign 19 months ago with the same message: The 2020 presidential race is a battle for the soul of the nation.
“Tomorrow will be the beginning of a new day,” Biden told hundreds of supporters at a social distancing rally, which became the hallmark of his campaign in recent weeks. “The power to change this country is in your hands.”
The final rallies of Biden’s campaign included a groundbreaking organization: the campaign moved back and forth between Biden’s rally in Pittsburgh and the one led by his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, in Philadelphia, to unite them with the two digitally in a single event.
A presentation by musician John Legend and a speech by Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, in Philadelphia preceded the words of Biden’s wife in Pittsburgh.
“Are you ready to say to Donald Trump, ‘You’re fired’?” Jill Biden said.
Biden closed his campaign in Pennsylvania for two reasons. First, the state’s 20 electoral votes are a key prize that – if the election is close while the votes are counted – could prove decisive. And unlike other contested states, particularly those in the Sun Belt, where much of the votes are cast early, the majority of Pennsylvania voters will do the same on Tuesday.
The state is also at the center of Biden’s political identity. At campaign events for decades, he has told the emotional story of his father who lost his job in Biden’s hometown of Scranton and eventually moved his family to Delaware. Biden has visited the house in Scranton where he grew up during the campaign. He has cultivated decades-long ties with unions in the area.
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