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Elections in Pennsylvania |
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Government |
The 2024 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania took place on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, as part of the 2024 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Pennsylvania voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote. The state of Pennsylvania has 19 electoral votes in the Electoral College, following reapportionment due to the 2020 United States census in which the state lost a seat.[1]
A Northeastern swing state within the Rust Belt, Pennsylvania was seen as a pure toss-up this cycle. In 2016, Republican Donald Trump narrowly carried the state by 0.7% in his upset sweep of the Rust Belt and the first Republican presidential victory in Pennsylvania since 1988, but four years later lost the state to Democratic nominee Joe Biden by 1.2% as the latter defeated the former nationwide.
Pennsylvania was seen to hold the largest electoral prize of all the swing states in 2024. As such, it was widely considered the most crucial battleground in the entire election. The state's winner was estimated to have a 90% chance of winning the presidency.[2] Major news organizations marked it as a tossup in the lead-up to the election.[3]
Trump won Pennsylvania with 50.5% of the vote to Kamala Harris's 48.5%, defeating her by a margin of roughly 2% and flipping the state. This was the largest margin of victory for a Republican candidate since 1988, as well as the first since that election that a Republican won a majority in the state. Trump's victory is seen to have contributed to down-ballot victories for Republicans who won the races for the US Senate, Attorney General, Treasurer and Auditor.
Trump flipped Bucks and Monroe counties into the Republican column for the first time since 1988 and 2004, respectively. He also reclaimed Erie and Northampton counties which he lost in 2020, after having previously won them in 2016. Trump’s victory made him the first Republican candidate to carry Pennsylvania twice since Ronald Reagan did so in 1980 and 1984.