Welcome to the online edition of From the Politics Desk. This evening newsletter brings you the latest reporting and analysis from campaigns, the White House and Capitol Hill from the NBC News politics team.
In today’s edition, political reporter Alan Smith looks at how Elon Musk could help (or hurt) Donald Trump during his campaign. Additionally, national political correspondent Steve Kornacki breaks down the different paths to victory that Kamala Harris and Trump are planning in Pennsylvania.
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Elon Musk takes action on Trump’s behalf, but it’s unclear how it will land
Written by Alan Smith
Former President Donald Trump’s first rally in Butler, Pennsylvania featured one of the most iconic and talked about images of his entire political career. It was Secret Trump, who had just survived an assassination attempt, bleeding and raising his fist in the air under the American flag. A service agent escorted him off stage.
But the most attention-grabbing image of the former president in his return on Saturday wasn’t even that of President Trump. That’s what billionaire benefactor Elon Musk was jumping up and down on stage before he was given a chance to address rally attendees.
Different images helped paint a picture of both the benefits and drawbacks of having Mr. Musk in Mr. Trump’s corner. Musk, the world’s richest man, could boost Trump’s candidacy with his vast resources and ability to attract more attention than other surrogates. Conversely, such attention is often the result of disgusting behavior by voters, which may seem unhelpful to the former president and his campaign.
Musk’s appearance at President Trump’s Pennsylvania rally over the weekend was the culmination of the eccentric billionaire’s year-long shift to the right, accelerated by his acquisition of Twitter Inc. in 2022. In recent months, Musk has routinely spread conspiracy theories about election fraud, illegal immigration and even the federal government. Emergency response to Hurricane Helen.
Musk spoke from the podium, calling himself “Dark Maga” and ominously warning that if Trump loses, “this will be our last election.”
“That’s my prediction,” he said. “Nothing is more important than this.”
Mr. Musk has sought to support Mr. Trump and other Republican candidates behind the scenes through his America PAC, which incorporates much of the former president’s vote-getting efforts. After appearing in western Pennsylvania, Musk began offering people $47 if they succeeded in getting voters in the battleground state to sign a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments. .
Mr. Musk also intends to follow in Mr. Trump’s footsteps throughout the final months of the campaign, confirming an earlier Politico report, according to a person familiar with the effort.
Overall, Mr. Musk is viewed more negatively by voters than positively. An NBC News poll in September showed Musk’s net approval rating was -11. But Musk did somewhat better in polls among men under 50, a key group targeted by Trump, and among men overall (the only subgroup in which Musk’s numbers were above water). I put it out.
With the numbers looking unfavorable across the board, it may be difficult for Musk himself to get more voters onto the Trump train. But the combined influence of the social media sites he owns and controls and the increasingly powerful PAC could make him jump for joy come November.
Dasha Burns contributed reporting.
🔀 Across the aisle: Meanwhile, Dasha Burns also called Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who was on Kamala Harris’ running mate list, during Musk’s Steelers game on Sunday. reported that they had discussed investing in the Pittsburgh area. Read more →
Trump and Harris look at two very different paths to victory in Pennsylvania
Written by Steve Kornacki
Whether each side shows a path to victory in the all-important battleground of Pennsylvania will be determined by where the big names advance over the next two days.
The mission for Donald Trump is to expand support among the state’s growing number of Latino voters and regain ground lost to Joe Biden among blue-collar voters in the northeastern part of the state.
One of President Trump’s two stops in Pennsylvania on Wednesday will be Reading, a city with about 100,000 people that has the highest concentration of Latinos in the state. It is the largest of a string of eastern Pennsylvania cities that make up the so-called “Latino Belt,” a region characterized by rapid growth in the Hispanic population and the political growth of the Trump Republican Party.
Trump’s goal is not to win in Reading, which remains a deep blue city. But since he emerged as the face of the Republican Party, that blue has taken on a somewhat lighter shade. In 2012, Barack Obama won Reading by 64 points, but in 2020, Biden won by 45 points.
This shift away from Democrats comes as the share of Latinos in the city’s population has expanded from 37% in 2000 to 58% in 2010 and 69% in 2020, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. It happened in response.
National polls show Trump has made further gains among Latinos since 2020. A larger Democratic advantage in Reading and similar cities could go a long way toward reversing the 80,000-vote loss President Trump lost in Pennsylvania four years ago.
Another destination President Trump will visit on Wednesday is Scranton, a blue-collar hub in northeastern Pennsylvania. Scranton is the county seat of Lackawanna County, a longtime Democratic stronghold that won by Obama by 27 points in 2012, but was defeated by Hillary Clinton in 2016 by just 3 points. The result was a strong leaning toward Mr. Trump. Biden, a Scranton native, regained Democratic control in 2020, leading the county by 8 points.
Lackawanna is more white (82%) than Pennsylvania as a whole (74%), and the percentage of white people without a four-year college degree (69%) is higher than the state average (63%). Exceeds. The median income ($63,739) is also about $10,000 lower than the statewide figure. Demographically, these tend to be indicators of Trump’s electoral success.
On the Democratic side, Obama is scheduled to campaign for Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh, the state’s second-largest city, on Thursday. And on Wednesday, former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney is expected to endorse Harris in Montgomery County, a suburb of Philadelphia.
These events can be seen as part of the Democratic Party’s strategy to maximize support in the geographically compact but densely populated counties that were most popular during the Trump era. In fact, only five of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties performed at least five points better under Biden in 2020 than under Obama in 2012, including Montgomery and Allegheny (where Pittsburgh is located). 2 counties.
All of these counties have significantly higher percentages of white voters with four-year degrees than Pennsylvania as a whole, and median incomes are also higher than the state’s overall numbers. These have been indicators of Democratic electoral success in the Trump era.
Further increases in support and turnout in the suburbs of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia (and several other parts of the state with a suburban character) could give the Harris campaign a boost in potential gains for Trump elsewhere. This would give them a chance to offset that and keep the state in the Democratic fold.
🗞️ Today’s Top News
🌀 Hurricane preparations: Biden postpones a trip to Germany and Angola this week as Hurricane Milton is expected to hit Florida. Harris also criticized President Trump, calling him “grossly irresponsible” for spreading disinformation about hurricane aid. Continue reading → 📕 Book Report 1: According to a report in Bob Woodward’s upcoming book, President Trump has had seven meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving the White House, including the most recent one. It is said that they had a meeting. Continue reading → 📕 Book Report 2: Former first lady Melania Trump details her support for abortion rights in a new memoir released Tuesday. Continue reading → 📺 On Air: According to AdImpact, anti-trans ads criticizing Harris are the two most viewed ads by President Trump during pro and college football games. Continue reading → 🎥 Primetime appearances: After facing criticism for not participating in media interviews, Harris faced tough questions Monday in an interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes.” Continue reading → ⚖️ SCOTUS Watch: Supreme Court suggests likely to uphold Biden administration’s move to regulate ‘ghost gun’ kits that allow people to assemble deadly weapons at home while circumventing existing regulations did. Continue reading → ⚠️ Election warning: Foreign adversaries will seek to cast doubt on election results by making false claims and spreading their own disinformation after November 5th U.S. intelligence officials said. Continue reading → 🗳️ No Vote Update 1: Montana Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy says in newly unearthed audio that the Republican Party needs to do better to win support from young women, and women says he has been “indoctrinated” on this issue for years Read more → 🗳️ No vote update 2: Democrats raise concerns about Republican candidate Bernie Moreno’s Colombian family and heritage in Ohio Senate race and has drawn accusations of racism from Republicans. Members of the NBC News Decision Desk detail how they decide when to predict the winner on election night. Continue reading → Follow live coverage of the election campaign →
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