WASHINGTON CROSSING, Pa. — Pennsylvania, the center of the universe for the presidential election, is a statistical dead heat in polling right now between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Harris will need help from Republicans and independent voters who reject Trump’s increasingly erratic bid for a second term if she’s going to win this state.

That's why Harris was here Wednesday, appealing directly to Republicans in the crowd, on stage with her and paying attention via news coverage. She spoke one day after President Joe Biden swung through the state Tuesday and Trump visited on Monday.

Among the three "blue wall" states, along with Michigan and Wisconsin, Pennsylvania is seen as the linchpin to the presidency.

Win here, win it all. Harris needs Republican help.

The Harris campaign stop in this bucolic corner of Bucks County, a Philadelphia suburb, was an open appeal to moderate voters after Biden rallied the local Democratic base in a Philadelphia union hall Tuesday, touting his vice president as the the party’s “next generation.”

“In a typical election year, you all being here with me might be a bit surprising. Dare I say unusual,” Harris said to the assembled Republicans with a chuckle before turning serious. “But not in this election.”

Trump, earlier in the day, appeared at a Fox News “town hall,” where he repeated his clearly unconstitutional claim that his political foes are “the enemy from within”........

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