It’s a tradition: GOP presidential campaign ends in Bucks County
✔️ GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance will host a rally in Newtown
✔️ Republican candidates have traditionally made Bucks County a final campaign stop
✔️ Democrat Kamala Harris plans a large rally in Philadelphia
Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance will continue the tradition of a political rally in Bucks County in the final days of a presidential campaign.
Pennsylvania is a battleground state with 19 electorial votes up for grabs and Bucks County voters could determine the winner of the popular vote in Tuesday's election. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll of likely Pennsylvania voters released Sunday shows Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris tied at 49% each with a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points
Vance will host a rally at the Newtown Sports and Events Center on Penns Trail in Newtown Township scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m. Monday. Supporters can request two tickets on the Trump campaign website. The facility is owned by Newtown Athletic Center owner Jim Worthington, a strong supporter of Donald Trump who has hosted several events with both Trump and Vance during the campaign.
"I am proud to host JD Vance's final campaign rally Monday night," Worthington wrote on his Facebook page.
Bucks County in the national spotlight
Trump will appear at four rallies on Monday including two in Pennsylvania in Reading and Pittsburgh. He'll start the day in Raleigh, NC and end in Grand Rapids, MI.
Harris will hold her final rally at the Philadelphia Art Museum. She is expected to be joined by several celebrities who have endorsed her but no names have been announced. Speculation includes Pennsylvania native Taylor Swift.
Trump made one of the most notable stops of the presidential campaign when he worked the fry machine at McDonald's in the Trevose section of Lower Southampton on Oct. 15.
Bucks County was also in the national spotlight after video went viral showing mailed-in ballots being opened and removed from their sealed envelopes. Ballots with votes for Trump were torn up while Harris ballots were put to the side. Three federal agencies including the FBI were determined it was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
The slow process of processing applications for the state's early on-demand ballots created long lines at county election office and doubt about whether or not all voters would be accommodated. A lawsuit by the Donald Trump campaign led to an extension of the deadline to apply to Friday although the long lines persisted with waits of up to four hours reported.
Bush at Broadmeadow Farm
The tradition of a final political rally in Bucks goes back to 2004 when President George W. Bush held a rally at Broadmeadow Farm in Lower Makefield that drew an estimated crowd of 23,000, according to coverage by The Reporter.
An American flag was on the roof of the barn that faces the Newtown Bypass. Lower Makefield police Capt. Tom Roche told The Centurion, the student newspaper of Bucks County Community College, that the Secret Service scrambled to secure the open field where the event took place.
School buses, PennDOT trucks and farmer trailers were used to build a wall around the property. McCaffrey’s of Yardley catered the event with 8,000 hot dogs, 6,000 donuts and 8,000 pretzels brought in for the crowd.
Bush defeated Sen. John Kerry to win a second term.
Republican John McCain spent the final weekend of his campaign against Democrat Barack Obama in 2008 with a number of campaign stops including one at Pennridge Airport in the Perkasie section of East Rockhill, according to coverage by Salon.com. 4,500 attended the rally in an airport hanger.
Rallies create controversy
The final push was back in the Newtown area in Oct. 2012 when nominee Mitt Romney visited Shady Brook Farms in Yardley, one of four events for the GOP nominee that day, according to CBS Philadelphia coverage. The event was notable for the absence of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a vocal supporter of Romney's campaign.
The governor passed on attending the event that was a 15 minute drive from the Statehouse in Trenton because he said his full attention was needed on the state's recovery from Superstorm Sandy. The combination of Christie's absence and working with then-President Barack Obama including a hug when the president came to New Jersey cost Romney the election and Christie any chance at the presidency, some political pundits say.
In his first interview after losing the November election, Romney told Chris Wallace he doesn't hold Christie responsible.
“I’m not going to worry about how Chris was doing what he thought was best for the people of his state. I lost my election because of my campaign, not because of what anyone else did," Romney said.
Romney says Sandy forced him to bring his campaign to a halt. "We were in the last week. We were ready to hammer, hammer, hammer our message and we had to stop."
The Trump rallies
Worthington's Newtown Athletic Club hosted a rally the Friday before Election Day in 2016, according to CBS Philadelphia. The rally also led some to cancel their membership but Worthington was not concerned. He called it the "single most significant event in 38 years" and told CBS Philadelphia about 20 memberships were canceled.
"That's fine. They have a choice as well, just like I have a choice to put this on at night."
Trump brought his re-election campaign in 2020 back in Newtown on Halloween with a rally at The Keith House, also known as Washington's Headquarters or Headquarters Farm, according to WHYY.
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