What questions do you have about the 2024 elections? What major issues do you want candidates to address? Let us know.
Editor’s Note: WHYY News Reporter Carmen Russell-Sluchansky visited the Trump rally and nearby Allentown to gather both the rally-goers’ and residents’ perspectives. Read both stories for multiple points of view.
The Lehigh Valley is a bellwether region for the presidential race. In 2020, it helped seal Biden’s victory, but this year Republicans want to deliver Pennsylvania’s precious 19 electoral votes to Trump.
On Saturday, Donald Trump kicked off his first major campaign event in Schnecksville, a rural town just 10 miles from Allentown, the state’s third-largest city.
“When you get up there and take a look and look at Schnecksville, it’s a rural part of the state,” Allentown Mayor Matthew Tuerk told WHYY News. “Allentown is a much denser urban area. The things that we’re working on in Allentown are just very distinct from Schnecksville. So here in Allentown, you barely would know that he’s in the area or that he’s going to be in the area.”
Nephtalie Charles, a student at Cedar Crest College, was surprised to know the former president was in the area.
“What’s he doing here?” she asked.
Charles plans to vote for Biden in November but said it’s more of a vote against Trump. She said that Biden’s age concerns her but that there are more important issues to consider.
“I believe that women should still maintain their abortion rights, their body, and sometimes abortion is good for their health, for their physical and mental health,” she said. “So yeah, I’d probably be voting for that.”
Diane, a retiree, also plans to vote for Biden to stop Trump from occupying the White House.
“It’s just going to be bad for democracy if he gets back in,” she told WHYY News. “That’s my opinion. I could say a lot more, but to be nice, I’ll just say that we really need to elect people that are not going to ruin our democracy.”
Not everyone is planning to participate in the elections this November.
“I just am not fond of the candidates,” Nicky Yu told WHYY. “The country’s going downhill.”
Yu said she would vote for a third-party candidate — specifically mentioning Robert Kennedy, Jr. — but she said “they never win, so I feel there’s no point.”