By Steve Holland
SCRANTON, Pennsylvania (Reuters) -Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump vowed on Wednesday to increase U.S. energy production if elected as he looked to bolster his blue-collar appeal at a rally in President Joe Biden's hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
It was Trump's second visit in just five days to Pennsylvania as he holds rallies in regions heavily populated by the working class, who are seen as a key voting bloc in the hard-fought race between the former president and Democratic opponent Kamala Harris.
The two candidates are locked in a tight battle in Pennsylvania, a swing state whose 19 electoral votes are likely to prove crucial to who wins the Nov. 5 election.
"If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole thing," Trump told several thousand supporters in Scranton.
Trump's speech was heavily focused on energy production, an important issue for workers employed in Pennsylvania's production of energy through fracking.
Harris, the vice president, had long opposed fracking but switched positions to support it when she became the Democratic candidate.
"We will make Pennsylvania an energy supplier to the whole world, and I will cut your energy prices in half," Trump said.
"On Day One, 'frack, frack, frack' and 'drill, drill, drill," he said. "We will have energy independence and energy dominance."
Gasoline prices went up under Biden but recently have seen significant drops, and experts believe pump prices should drop below $3 a gallon later in October.
While Trump vowed a surge in energy production, he also touted his friendship with Elon Musk, CEO of electric car maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA). Musk appeared with Trump at his Butler, Pennsylvania, rally on Saturday and plans more campaigning for the former president in the state.
While Biden is mostly associated with Delaware as a former senator there, Scranton is a fabled part of his origin story. He was born in the industrial city and grew up in a modest home.
Biden won the Democratic stronghold of Lackawanna County, due in large part to Scranton, by 9 percentage points in 2020, outperforming fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, who won the county by under 4 points during her presidential bid.
Trump is due later on Wednesday at an event in Reading, Pennsylvania, giving him another opportunity to try to appeal to working-class voters. Some opinion polls show he has been gaining ground with this bloc.
Trump has made the U.S. economy a central theme of his campaign, promising tariffs on some imports to increase the production of goods in the United States and boost employment.
The most recent Reuters-Ipsos poll said respondents reported the economy as the top issue facing the country. It said some 44% said Trump had the better approach on addressing the "cost of living," compared with 38% who picked Harris.
Democrats have said Trump's attempt to preserve his 2017 slashing of the corporate tax rate shows the limits of his caring for blue-collar workers.