Pennsylvania is the key to the White House, chief CBS News elections correspondent says

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The chief elections and campaign correspondent for CBS News said Pennsylvania is the key to the White House.

During a day-long program called Newsapalooza at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, KDKA-TV Political Editor Jon Delano asked CBS News' Robert Costa about the state of the presidential race in Pennsylvania .

Before an audience of several hundred people at the Pittsburgh Playhouse at Point Park University, Costa addressed future journalists about the importance of local journalism.

"It's really an honor to be here to celebrate local journalism and to encourage all of you to read and to think," Costa said.

Following Costa's remarks, KDKA-TV interviewed him on stage before the audience about this cliffhanger presidential election in Pennsylvania.

"It's hard to see a path to the White House for either candidate that doesn't run through Pennsylvania," he said. "Pennsylvania is crucial when it comes to the electoral map."

With 19 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is the largest of the seven battleground states.

"If you don't win here, you have to come up with a whole combination of states that's not easy to do," Costa said.

Costa identified the key voting block.

"The working voter who is feeling a little bit of economic pain and is wondering, who is going to fight for me," he said.

Costa said it's no surprise both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are spending so much time in the region.

"For Vice President Harris, it's about countering Trump in Western Pennsylvania, not letting him run up the score," Costa said.

"There's a belief inside the Harris campaign that some of these moderate Republicans could be persuaded to either stay home or, even better for the Democrats, vote for Harris because they just don't like Trump," he said.

"For Trump, it's all about making sure that aggrieved voter, the exurban voter, the rural voter, and that classical Republican comes out for him," he added.

Costa thinks this election is more about the candidates' policies than their personalities, policies like the economy, abortion rights, foreign policy and border security.

Both candidates are searching for whatever motivates you to vote for them in Pennsylvania.