PHILADELPHIA — First-term Republican Congressman Welzie Hunt was far from his native Texas on Tuesday.
The military veteran and surrogate for Donald Trump was in Philadelphia to attend the opening of the former president’s first campaign office in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state in the 2024 presidential rematch between Trump and President Biden.
“The man who will rise again and lead this country back from the brink is Donald John Trump,” Hunt, a Black Republican and a rising star in the GOP, told supporters and reporters packed into his small office in the city’s northeast corner.
Although Trump has seen a surge in fundraising since becoming the first sitting and former president to be convicted at a criminal trial last week and is ahead of Biden in the latest polls in most key battleground states, Trump and the RNC are now falling far behind the Biden campaign and the DNC when it comes to grassroots and get-out-the-vote efforts.
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Republican Congressman Wesley Hunt of Texas will be the featured speaker at the dedication of Pennsylvania’s first Trump campaign office in Philadelphia on June 4, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
The Biden campaign says it has hired more than 500 staffers and opened more than 175 offices in battleground states.
And in Pennsylvania, one of six states that Biden narrowly won in 2020 to take the White House, the president’s reelection campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the state party have 24 coordinated offices and hundreds of staffers.
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The Pennsylvania native has made numerous official visits and campaign events in the state, particularly in Philadelphia, since launching his reelection campaign more than a year ago, and last week Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned together in Philadelphia for the first time.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris wave during a campaign event at Girard College in Philadelphia, Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“We have a little bit of catching up to do, but we intend to open offices across the state of Pennsylvania,” Vince Fennerty, chairman of the Philadelphia Republican Party and a ward chairman for more than 50 years, told Fox News.
But Fenati stressed that “we have time to catch up. People are jumping on the Trump train, and the locomotive will move fast.”
“I campaigned in this part of city because it’s ethnically and racially diverse, and I want to start here because I want to build a broad coalition of Americans who support President Trump,” Fenerty said.
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Philadelphia is overwhelmingly Democratic, and Biden won the city four years ago, beating Trump 81% to 18%.
But in an interview with Fox News, Hunt stressed that “we are going boldly where Republicans haven’t gone in the last 20 or 30 years. We’re not trying to catch up, we’re fishing where the fish are.”
“We know that we’ve made great strides in the black community and among Hispanic men and women,” Hunt added, “so now we’re not here to catch up, we’re here to put the final nail in the coffin.”
Republican Congressman Wesley Hunt of Texas will be the featured speaker at the dedication of Pennsylvania’s first Trump campaign office in Philadelphia on June 4, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Kellan White, a senior adviser to the Pennsylvania Democratic campaign, fired back, telling Fox News, “Donald Trump is a convicted felon and could not find real Pennsylvanians to star in his fake events.”
He then accused Trump of “running a racist campaign for years as president, implementing racist policies and hurting Black communities every chance he got. In stark contrast, Joe Biden has fought and achieved results for Pennsylvanians, especially Black Pennsylvanians, by capping insulin costs for seniors at $35 a month, creating more than 500,000 good paying jobs in Pennsylvania alone, and protecting our democracy and reproductive freedom.”
The Philadelphia office opening came hours after the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee announced the launch of a new effort they’re calling “Swamp The Vote USA,” encouraging Republicans to vote early, either in person or by absentee ballot.
The Trump campaign said the new effort to promote early voting is part of the recently announced Trump Force 47 program, a neighborhood-to-neighbor grassroots organizing program between the campaign and the Republican National Committee that is “focused on mobilizing targeted voters in key battleground states and districts.”
Earlier this spring, some Keystone State Republicans complained about a lack of ground work by the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.
But Lehigh County Republican Committee member Bobby Arenas told Fox News on Tuesday that “things are changing for the better,” pointing to “additional support on the ground and offices opening across the state.”
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