Trump, Biden zero in on swing states that are fundamental to election victory

With Election Day just three weeks away, President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden concentrated Tuesday on battleground states both see as critical to clinching an Electoral College victory, tailoring their happen to be best motivate voters who could cast potentially decisive ballots.

Biden went to Florida to court seniors, seeking to deliver a knockout blow in circumstances Trump needs to win while trying to woo a group whose support for the president has slipped. And Trump visited Pennsylvania, arguably the main state on the electoral map, unleashing fierce attacks on Biden's fitness for office in his opponent's backyard.

“He’s shot, folks. I hate to tell you, he’s shot," Trump told a major rally crowd in Johnstown, saying there was extra pressure on him to win because Biden was the worst presidential applicant ever. “Can you imagine if you lose to a man like this? It's unbelievable."

In his second rally since contracting the coronavirus, Trump spoke for a lot more than one hour to a crowd of thousands packed in tightly and mostly maskless. 

Just like the night before in Florida, Trump seemed healthy, and his rhetoric on the pandemic - like the dubious claim that it had been mostly something of days gone by - changed little despite his own illness, except for his threat to kiss audience members to prove his immunity.

Trump made a local pitch, hammering home the claim that a Democratic administration could limit fracking in areas where in fact the economy is heavily reliant on energy, despite Biden's proposal to only bar new leases on federal land, a fraction of US fracking operations. 

And Trump, touting his elimination of a federal rule that could have brought more low-income housing to the suburbs, zeroed in on groups whose support he has struggled to retain, including female voters turned off by his rhetoric.

“So I request you to do me a favor. Suburban women: Will you please like me? Please. Please. I saved your damn neighborhood, OK?" Trump said. “The other thing: I don’t have that enough time to be that nice. You understand I could do it, but I gotta go quickly.”

Biden spent your day in Florida, his third visit to the state in per month, seeking to expand on his inroads with older voters. To Trump, "you’re expendable, you're forgettable, you’re nearly nobody,” Biden said at a senior center in Pembroke Pines, about 32km from Fort Lauderdale.

The “only senior Donald Trump appears to care about" is himself, Biden added.

After frequently criticizing Trump for not doing enough to market mask-wearing to avoid the spread of the virus, Biden was wearing two masks, an N-95 underneath a blue surgical mask, as he deplaned in Florida. Later in your day, he switched to his normal mode of donning just one single.

READ: Infectious diseases expert Fauci says Trump campaign ad twists his words on COVID-19

Introducing Biden in Pembroke Pines, Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz noted that “neither of the men will head into the White House without the blessing of Florida seniors".

“Much is constructed of the rise of the youth vote, and thank God for this," the Florida congresswoman said. "But it’s residents 65 or older who still swing elections in the Sunshine State.”

Biden also held a drive-in rally designed to promote voter mobilization in the heavily African American community of Miramar. His swing coincided with a US$500,000 donation from billionaire former NY Mayor Mike Bloomberg to improve Democratic turnout in Miami-Dade County.

“I'm running as a proud Democrat, but I will govern as an American president,” Biden said to supporters blaring their horns as they listened from cars. “I'll work as hard for many who vote against me as those that vote for me personally."

Back Washington, Tuesday marked the second day of Senate hearings to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Trump and top Republicans visit a swift confirmation as an opportunity to energize conservatives. Trump mentioned those proceedings as he left the White House, saying, "Amy was doing incredibly well.”

Biden's campaign believes it could win the White House without Florida's 29 electoral votes, nonetheless, it wants to secure the state to pay a margin of victory over Trump, who has questioned the legitimacy of an election where many people will cast mail-in ballots through the pandemic. Biden has vowed to win Pennsylvania, but if he falls short, his path to victory narrows substantially.

With 20 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is anchored by Philadelphia to the east, Pittsburgh to the west. But the remaining state is largely rural, made up of small cities and towns where Trump ran up the score four years back. He will have to again, in sustained numbers, as his prospects have slipped since 2016 in places like vote-rich suburban Philadelphia, where he underperformed by past Republican measures.

Trump's rally was at the airport in Johnstown in Cambria County, a historical coal and steel area that narrowly backed Democrat Barack Obama in 2008. Nonetheless, it has trended Republican for the past three decades and, in the 2016 election, Trump scored a 37 percentage-point victory. The region is also substantially whiter and has lower median incomes and lower rates of college-degree attainment compared to the rest of Pennsylvania.

Biden, who was simply born 350km away in Scranton, visited Johnstown late last month. The former vice president has tried to cast himself as a champion of working-class voters while accusing Trump of focusing instead on stock market returns and Park Avenue values.

Regardless of the pandemic, Trump’s campaign has prioritized in-person events and aggressive door-knocking as it tries to carefully turn out new and low-propensity voters, including more members of the white working class and also require backed Democrats previously.

Republicans indicate an aging population and a shrinking voter-registration edge for Democrats, down 20 % from 2016’s election to 717,000, according to the latest Pennsylvania data.