Former President Bill Clinton to stump for Harris in Westmoreland County

Former President Bill Clinton will make three appearances Tuesday in Western Pennsylvania as the race for the White House reaches the homestretch.

Clinton is scheduled to appear at events at the University of Pittsburgh’s Greensburg campus and in McKeesport and Johnstown on behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign.

It’s a race that is expected to be close as polls continue to show a dead heat between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.

Both campaigns have focused on Pennsylvania as a key swing state, and candidates and their surrogates have made dozens of appearances over the past two months throughout the state. Additional appearances are expected over the final week of the campaign.

Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, has scheduled a town hall with former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in Bedford on Wednesday. Trump is holding a rally Monday night in Atlanta and is scheduled to appear in Allentown on Tuesday. He also has rallies planned for this week in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Nevada and Virginia. Harris is holding a campaign event Monday in Michigan and is set for speeches Tuesday on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., and Wednesday in Wisconsin.

Clinton is no stranger to Westmoreland County. As president in July 1994, he appeared before about 5,000 people on Main Street in front of the courthouse in Greensburg to lobby for his administration’s health care policy. Clinton also spoke at Greensburg Salem High School during wife Hilary Clinton’s unsuccessful 2008 Democratic primary campaign.

Clinton is the last Democratic presidential candidate to win Westmoreland County. That race in 1996 signaled a political turn for what was then a traditionally Democratic county. Over the past three decades, Westmoreland County has become reliably red, with Republicans now holding a voter registration advantage of nearly 40,000.

The county still has more than 91,000 registered Democrats, the second highest total in Western Pennsylvania behind Allegheny County.

The Harris campaign said Clinton will appear with Sen. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, at the Pitt-Greensburg event to promote early voting and the Democrats’ economic message.

Early voting spikes

According to state election officials, more than 1.4 million mail-in ballots have been returned by voters. More than 2 million ballots have been requested. Voters have until 5 p.m. Tuesday to request mail-in ballots.

Long lines formed Monday afternoon outside Westmoreland County’s Election Bureau, where voters waited to apply for and turn in completed ballots.

More than 58,000 mail-in ballots have been requested in Westmoreland County, nearing the number of applications processed ahead of the 2020 presidential election, when more than 60,000 voters requested to vote by mail during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Election officials said more than 41,000 ballots have been returned in Westmoreland County.

Allegheny County election officials have processed more than 250,500 vote-by-mail applications this fall, with nearly 174,000 ballots having been returned by Monday morning, according to state reports.