CHAMBERSBURG, PA – On the closing day of a weeklong Team Trump bus tour through Pennsylvania, the coach — decaled with a giant number “47” and signatures from hundreds of voters it crossed paths with — pulled into Chambersburg near the Maryland line.
Those aboard hoped the stop – just over the mountain from where the first Republican president delivered his Gettysburg Address – would help usher in the next.
Rep. John Joyce, R-Pa., who represents a swath of southcentral Pennsylvania from Ebensburg to Shippensburg, said he was proud to see the 13th congressional district deliver the most votes to Trump than any other in the Commonwealth in 2020.
“What I’m seeing; what I’m feeling is the common sense, conservative values that President Trump brings to the table; we here in Central Pennsylvania recognize that we need a secure border . . . to turn around the reckless inflation that is causing Pennsylvanians not to have the money to pay for gasoline and groceries.”
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The side of the Team Trump bus is covered in autographs of supporters from its weeklong journey through Pennsylvania. (Fox News/Charlie Creitz)
Joyce quipped that as a physician, he sees Trump keeping his “finger on the pulse” of what Americans need from their leader.
State Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin County, Pennsylvania’s 2022 GOP gubernatorial nominee, echoed the sentiment.
“This is the most consequential election of our lifetime. Our freedoms are on the line: The Democrats have weaponized the justice system,” he said. “They are dumping violent illegals onto our streets, attacking free speech; destroying our economy.”
The retired Army colonel and Desert Storm veteran also warned that Democrats’ foreign policy has led the world to the “Brink of World War III.”
“Whether you live in Chambersburg or Philadelphia, everybody needs to get out and vote if you want to make America free and strong.”
One out-of-state figure on the tour was former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, who served under fellow Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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Former California Lieutenant Gov. Abel Maldonado speaks with Trump supporters at a Team Trump bus tour stop Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024 in Rutherfordton, N.C. ((AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek))
While “The Terminator” recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, Maldonado spoke about how casting his vote for Trump in California was a proud moment, but a bit emotional for him and his wife.
Maldonado said they knew their vote would not count much, as Harris is primed to win the Golden State.
However, what he could do was travel Pennsylvania in support of Trump and hope to make a difference there, he said.
When a few in the crowd initially jeered mention of California, when Maldonado said it was once governed by Ronald Reagan, the response turned to cheers.
“Ronald Reagan was the last person besides President Trump who had an attempted assassination on him . . . and when he came out of the hospital, he said to the American people, ‘God had his hand on me’.”
The son of Mexican immigrant farmers, Maldonado told the crowd at a later stop at state Rep. Barb Gleim’s farm near Mechanicsburg that the scene reminded him of his home and his family’s own farm.
“Farmers are real people – this man greeted us at the gate, guided us and parked us – and he owns the place,” he said of Gleim’s husband, Tracy.
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Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., speaks during a Team Trump bus stop near Shermans Dale, Pa. (Charlie Creitz)
On the tour from neighboring New York, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican, spoke to the crowd about the disparity in criminal justice policies between right and left.
Shifting to the economy, Malliotakis said: “I hear Kamala every time she opens her mouth, it sounds like something coming out of Hugo Chavez’ Venezuela.”
“My mother fled the communist country of Cuba. And so when I hear [Harris] talk about price controls, which caused hyperinflation, which caused the shelves to be empty in Venezuela, it is scary.”
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a former House Freedom Caucus chairman in a close race with ex-Lancaster news anchor Janelle Stelson, said the momentum appears to be heading in Trump’s direction.
“The Harris campaign keeps trying to give them a reason to vote for her, but every time they do it, they fail her,” he said.
“Her campaign is collapsing. [At] the most recent event in Pennsylvania was a town hall where she either [couldn’t] answer a question or refused to answer a question. And so the people are saying, ‘Look, we’re not going to put up with four more years of misery. We’re going to elect Trump and go back to where things were great, move forward.'”
Perry said constituents are worried about affording daily needs and paying bills on time.
“They also are worried about their safety,” he said, claiming that Democrats created those problems.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, later noted she, too, hails from an agricultural state like California and Pennsylvania.
“Iowa is in the bag, you know. And I thought it was really important to come out on the Trump Bus Tour and visit with all of you great folks. Because let me tell you, I look across the audience and I’m seeing [my family], I’m seeing my neighbors in this crowd, because I come from rural southwest Iowa. I am a farmer’s daughter.”
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Joni Ernst (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“My brother is a union laborer on the railroad. My sister is a farmer and works for a trucking company. I come from normal everyday people, and I work with normal, everyday people.”
Speaking with Fox News Digital, she said she has a positive outlook ahead of the election, after traveling the commonwealth on the bus.
“Every stop has a really enthusiastic crowd . . . they are fired up; they’re ready to engage other voters that might not vote in every election,” she said.
“So what we can say is ‘Goodbye, Kamala Harris. Goodbye, Bob Casey, and welcome again to peace and prosperity under President Donald J. Trump and soon-to-be United States Senator Dave McCormick.’”
Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, Mayor Jondavid Longo was with Trump in his home county of Butler just minutes before the GOP nominee was shot by an attempted assassin in July.
“I thought to myself long and hard after that day, after watching that man get shot in the face. And I thought, ‘My goodness, everything that this man has been through — and he’s asking us to go and vote early — the least that we all could do is do what it is that he’s asking us to do in order to make sure that he can get across the finish line . . .'” he told Fox News Digital while on the bus tour.
Fox News Digital’s Matteo Cina contributed to this report.