Cspan3. Joining us via zoom is laura, washington correspondent for the morning call. We talk about the battleground states in campaign 2020. Lets go back to 2016. What are the lessons for democrats and republicans as they gear up for the Fall Campaign . Pennsylvania is going to be a very close state again. 2016 was a long night. We had a final vote margin in the president ial race of 2400 votes. It was a pretty unusual change because democrats had done well in the president ial race, even though it was a swing state, and trump was able to boost republican turnout in rural areas where they struggle to turn out and he was able to flip some democratic areas that had previously supported barack obama. A couple key counties, including in our area, and those were pretty pivotal changes. Since then, you have actually seen some trends that have been accelerating, and most of those are democrat. Those area of the southeastern part of the state that has been in philadelphia, moving toward democrats and in the ensuing local elections, democrats have picked up some local races there. And the state also has four democratic congresswoman to the u. S. House in the 2018 election and delegation that did not have any women previously. And that was a boost to the democratic delegation, too. So its a really interesting environment on the ground right now. And pennsylvania joining michigan and wisconsin in socalled blue wall for the democrats. So looking at 2020, with joe biden, who is from scranton originally, on the top of thicket, how does that play in your part of the state . Were hearing about scranton quite ah luzerne county, but its in a bubble where trump has been able to pick up some gains among democratic voters there. Still registered democrat but have been voting more and more for republicans, so having joe biden on the top of the ticket would be a way to boost the democrats who say okay, i do have choices. Im willing to look at the other side. And of course, pennsylvania has been the state that President Trump has traveled to the most in the last three and a half years. Yeah, and we just saw him a little less than three weeks ago in allentown where he was headed out on an official visit, but very close to the primary, where he was heading to an equipment manufacturer, medical equipment manufacturer, to talk about some of the need in america. His economic message, and a key part of the state. Were going to be seeing many more visits both from him and from joe biden, who was also in pennsylvania this morning. He was in philadelphia making a speech, a pointed speech critiquing the president s tone. Lets talk about that. Not only the Vice President s speech but also the demonstrations taking place across philadelphia. Also in pittsburgh, in erie, and in scranton, pennsylvania. So how did the george floyd demonstrations play into this campaign, and oh, by the way, still dealing with coronavirus. Yeah, its the latest layer that adds some complications to a very unusual election. I should back up quickly and say this election got pushed back five weeks from when it was supposed to be held due to the coronavirus. County officials said they werent ready to hold a safe and accurate election, they needed more time. It was also an unusual election because its the first time that any pennsylvania voter can cast a ballot in the mail. So between the coronavirus and new voting rules across the entire state, with a pretty dramatic change, and now in the last two days, we see demonstrations that are in very voter heavy parts of the state. So far, the state has not had to make changes to help make sure the voting goes smoothly due to the demonstrations, except for one change in six counties where the ballots can be counted for additional days. But the mailin ballot has to be postmarked by today, but the county election offices and areas that had the most unrest, those ballots can be counted for additional days to make sure that if theres any delays and curfews or people unable to get into a place or to a mailbox or mail delays, that those ballots count. As we talk to reporters like you from battleground states, one of the things thats going to make this campaign so different, so interesting, is that it has become a virtual campaign. Most notably, the Campaign Rallies that were accustomed to, right now, theyre not going to happen. The doortodoor canvassing is not going to happen. How is all of this going to unfold in such a key state like pennsylvania . Because many people believe whoever wins pennsylvania wins the election. I think thats definitely tough for candidates not just for the president ial race but the downballot ticket as well. The state and local, even congressional candidates trying to drive excitement when everyone is focused on the top of the ticket, so we did see joe biden in philadelphia this morning. Shocking almost because we havent had any personal visits and people down the ballot have had to stick to campaign by phone or by social media. So he did a few events, but its pretty keyed in on the political happenings. Its going to be different. Were also voteing for delegates today. We wont be heading for a convention. So i think things well see if there are some ways that h r theyre able to check with voters on the ground. In the Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia Media market, its pretty expensive and it be hard, so well have to get creative as we get to the general election. And speaking of uncharted territory, you talked about this a moment ago, but the mailin ballots were seeing in pennsylvania. Will we see that in the fall . Will there be resistance from state republicans . Were watching very closely to see how things go today. Theres 1. 8 million mail ballots requested, and to put that in some sort of scope, the secretary of state yesterday said that was 17 times as many mail ballots as were requested in the 2016 primary. So a pretty big challenge here, and that number is only going to grow as we head into the general election. And the mailin ballot that we saw this year was not in response to the coronavirus. It was almost eerily timely, the change, but theres going to need to be additional changes that republicans havent been onboard with so far in terms of processing the ballots and making sure that things go smoothly. I think well have a lot of work today to make sure that november goes smoothly, especially with all of the eyes being focused on