WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign is spending Election Day, the last day on the campaign trail, focused on swing states.
Biden is set to travel to Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton narrowly lost the state to President Donald Trump in 2016, and Biden has focused many of his in-person visits on Pennsylvania. The former vice president has led in most polls of the state and was ahead of Trump by about five percentage points in polling analysis site FiveThirtyEight’s Nov. 2 average of Pennsylvania polls.
Vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris is set to travel to Detroit in Michigan, another state Democrats narrowly lost in 2016. Biden led Trump by about eight percentage points in FiveThirtyEight’s Nov. 2 polling average of Michigan.
Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes and Michigan’s 16 electoral votes could be crucial tipping points in the election as both Biden and Trump try to reach the 270 votes required for an Electoral College majority.
Joe Biden begins Election Day at St. Joseph’s church
Biden began Election Day attending church with his wife Jill Biden and two of their granddaughters at St. Joseph on the Brandywine in Greenville, Del.
The Bidens are regular attendees of the Roman Catholic Church, which the Democratic nominee usually visits on Sundays while campaigning. The church is also the same in which Biden’s son, Beau, is buried.
Biden has sought to make outreach to voters of faith an important part of his campaign. Catholic voters have long a crucial bloc in the nation and crucial swing states like Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas and Michigan.
The large and diverse Catholic vote has then been especially courted by both the Biden and Trump campaigns.
If Biden were elected president, he would be only the second practicing Catholic, after John F. Kennedy.