Former President Donald Trump returned to the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds on Oct. 5 for the first time since facing an assassination attempt on July 13 at the same location.
“I’m going back to Butler because I feel I have an obligation to go back to Butler. We never finished what we were supposed to do. And I said that day when I was shot, I said, ‘We’re coming back,’” the former president said in an interview to NewsNation’s Ali Bradley the week of his return to Butler.
In the crowd and speaking at the rally was SRU graduate and mayor of Slippery Rock, Jondavid Longo, who attended both of Trumps’s rallies in Butler.
Longo stressed the symbolic nature of Trump’s return to the Butler Farm Show grounds.
“It had to be done for a number of reasons,” Longo said, describing the importance as part of a healing process and to pay respects to shooting victim Corey Comperatore and everyone injured in the first rally.
The former president focused his speech on his return to the grounds of the first assassination attempt on his life and dedicated a portion of his speech to Corey Comperatore, the father and firefighter who was killed by shooter Thomas Mathew Crooks of Bethel, Pa.
SRU alumna Jan Maharg also attended both rallies in Butler. Maharg graduated with a major in elementary education and minor in early childhood education in 1973, later earning a master’s degree from Westminster in remedial reading.
Maharg commented on the atmosphere of the rally saying the air was filled with kindness, respect and patriotism.
“There were no harsh words in both [rallies],” she said. “There was a theme of unification in the second one, very determined the second one was in that manner.”
Trump ticket closes gap in Pennsylvania
The month of October saw a major shift in the 2024 presidential election with registration and polling indicating a much tighter race versus previous months.
One out of four dollars spent on political ads related to the presidential election from Sept. 1 to 20 were spent in Pennsylvania, according to AdImpact.
Additionally, almost 50 visits to Pennsylvania have occurred by both candidates according to NBC. NBC News also reported in their monthly self-conducted poll a tie between Trump and Vice President Harris at 48 points each. The Vice President is down one percentage point with Trump gaining four points in their polls, though NBC notes their polling expects a margin of error of 3.1 percent. Other notable polls performed by Quinnipiac say Harris is up three points while the Wall Street Journal has Trump up one point, emphasizing the general variation between polls.
“As Pennsylvania goes, so goes the White House,” Longo said. “President Trump knows that, the Democrats know that.”
Longo said the momentum is on the side of the GOP “hand over fist,” citing new voter registration data across Pennsylvania where Republican’s gained 22,188 new voter registration to the Democrat’s 9,428 as of Oct. 15.
In fact, the gap has been closing for some time, notably since Obama’s first presidential term. Democrats in Pennsylvania reached peak registration with a high of 51.2% in 2009, moving down to 44% this year. Republicans moved up to 40.2% from their 2009 share of 36.9%, as reported by Spotlight PA in mid-September. Independent or unaffiliated voters have also gone up around 4% since 2009, reaching 15.7% this year.
Maharg also serves as a councilwoman for the Butler County GOP’s Zelienople area congregation and is working with Trump Force 47. The organization focuses on door-knocking and registering voters, describing itself as “the official army of volunteer neighborhood organizers working together to defeat Kamala Harris and the far-left liberal democrats.”
Another the key difference in the presidential election is the major shift in how the Republican party and Trump view mail in ballots.
“Republicans now are embracing all of the many tools in our toolkit to cast our ballot and make sure our voice is heard,” Longo said, noting a key area where Democrats defeated Republicans in the 2020 election.
Since 2020, Trump’s messaging on mail-in ballots has been mixed.
“We have to get rid of mail-in ballots because once you have mail-in ballots, you have crooked elections,” the former president said following his victory in the Iowa Caucuses this year.
In April, Trump changed his stance writing a post on Truth Social stating, “ABSENTEE VOTING, EARLY VOTING, AND ELECTION DAY VOTING ARE ALL GOOD OPTIONS. REPUBLICANS MUST MAKE A PLAN, REGISTER, AND VOTE!”
Democrats proved decisive in many 2022 midterm victories by stopping the anticipated Republican “red wave.” Not only was the Democrat’s consistent adoption of early voting superior, but their rallying of typically low-participation demographics was successful. In the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a record number of young people voted in the election.
As the gap of registered voters between the parties closes, national polling follows suit. And as the race tightens between the almost even metrics in total registrations and polling, the deciding factor, as in every election, will be turnout.
