Biden and Trump are tied in Pennsylvania in the latest Fox News Poll. (Getty Images)
Jack Doyle, Pennsylvania spokesperson for Biden's campaign, told Fox News Digital in a statement, "This election is about Scranton vs. Mar-a-Lago," demonstrating the campaign's effort to draw a contrast between Biden's more rural roots and former President Trump's lavish estate in southern Florida.
"While Joe Biden is fighting so every Pennsylvanian has a fair shot to get ahead, Donald Trump is fighting his own trials, tribulations and personal grievances," he said. "In 2020, Pennsylvanians rejected Trump’s extremism and delivered the presidency for Joe Biden, and that’s exactly what will happen again this November."
According to Ray Zaborney, a Pennsylvania Republican strategist, "Biden is trying to remind voters that he’s from Pennsylvania, obviously."
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The president's strategy is to portray himself as a "blue collar guy from a blue collar town," he added.
Berwood Yost, director of Floyd Institute's Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College, noted that candidates are going to use everything they can to their advantage in 2024, given the competitive nature of the state. And, "ensuring that the state's residents know and understand his connections to the state certainly can't hurt Mr. Biden," he said.
Biden often touts his hometown roots in Scranton. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)
"I've never seen in any of our data any evidence that there's any sense of Biden being the hometown boy in Pennsylvania," he said.
He claimed issues like taxes and immigration far outweigh any influence Biden's Pennsylvania roots may have.
"I know they lean on it a lot, but it certainly isn't something that I think is an effective gambit for them or approach," Harris said.
Yost said that Biden's strategy "probably helped him in 2020, but his standing among the state's voters has slid since the last election."
He suggested it could potentially help Biden strengthen his standing with those lapsed supporters.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, "With just 35% job approval, Joe Biden is floundering in his home state of Pennsylvania. Between higher gas prices, surging crime, and failed Democrat policies crushing families at every corner, it's no wonder that Pennsylvanians across the commonwealth are increasingly rejecting the failed Biden agenda and supporting President Trump."
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Earlier this month, a Fox News Poll showed Biden and Trump in a dead heat in Pennsylvania, 48% to 48%. The vote share between the two in 2020 was 49.85% to 48.69%, Biden to Trump.
When including several third-party candidates, Trump defeats Biden by a small margin, 44% to 42%.
Biden and Trump have each won Pennsylvania: Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. (Getty Images)
There is no doubt that Pennsylvania will be close, Pennsylvania Democratic strategist Mike Mikus emphasized.
At the same time, Biden's focus on the Keystone state "definitely helps," he said.
It "reminds people" why they voted for the president in 2020, Mikus said.
Fee described that Biden's Pennsylvania affinity was so evident during his career that "he was widely described as Pennsylvania's third senator."
But Harris pushed back at this, explaining, "He wasn't the senator from Pennsylvania."
"It's been so long since he's had any real ties here," he said.
He likened the roots Biden has highlighted in the state to "a one-liner in his biography," which isn't going to resonate with Keystone State voters come November.
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The Pennsylvania Democratic operatives also pointed to the significance of the state's proximity to Delaware, which Biden had long-represented in the Senate. According to Democratic Pennsylvania strategist J.J. Balaban, "he was a senator in the Philadelphia media market — the largest media market in Pennsylvania — for decades."
This has laid the groundwork for a "cultural affinity that goes beyond where he lived as a boy," he said.
Julia Johnson is a politics writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business, leading coverage of the U.S. Senate. She was previously a politics reporter at the Washington Examiner.
Follow Julia's reporting on X at @JuliaaJohnson_ and send tips to Julia.Johnson@fox.com.
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