Obama To Campaign For Biden In Philly Wednesday

PHILADELPHIA — Former President Barack Obama will be in Philadelphia Wednesday for his first-in person event supporting the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign.

The event will take place at Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia. It will be a drive-in rally. Attendees will listen to Obama through their radios, just like a drive-in movie. It is slated to begin at 5:45 p.m.

According to the Biden campaign, the event is ticketed and not open to the public. Tickets are being distributed through area campaign officials.

While the public won't be able to see the 44th president speak in person, the event will be livestreamed on Biden's campaign website.

Obama will speak directly to Black voters — Black men specifically, the campaign said.

City officials Tuesday did not say if any traffic impacts are expected from the former president's visit. The city is working with the Secret Service and other federal officials to coordinate the event, officials said Tuesday.

Obama is coming to Philadelphia about two months after he delivered a speech at the Democratic National Convention in August from the Museum of the American Revolution.

Biden was in Philadelphia two weeks ago for a town hall event hosted by ABC.

Pennsylvania is a key battleground state for the general election. In the 2016 election, Trump carried the state by about 44,000 votes.

Pennsylvania was one of three traditionally blue states that propelled Trump to victory in 2016. Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate to win Pennsylvania since George H.W. Bush in 1988.

Both candidates have been campaigning heavily in the Keystone State in an effort to win over (mostly suburban) voters.

Trump at a campaign rally in Johnston recently asked suburban Pennsylvania women "Will you please like me?" and claimed to have saved suburban neighborhoods from a threat he did not name.

The plea comes around the same time Biden's polling numbers in Pennsylvania, his home state, reached their highest levels. After Trump narrowed former Biden's lead in August and September, Biden has again gained an edge in the most recent data.

The Keystone State's 20 electoral votes are tied for fifth-most.