Pa. GOP blocks reporter from Trump campaign office opening in Lancaster County

• By Jaxon White/LNP | LancasterOnline

Last week the Republican Committee of Lancaster County announced that Donald Trump’s campaign would open an office within its headquarters on June 13.

But a reporter and photographer who went Thursday night to document this latest campaign 2024 development were denied entry by the state GOP without explanation.

The opening’s invitation, posted to the county GOP’s Facebook page, did not say it was closed to reporters. Neither did its online registration form.

A paper sign reading “Closed Press” was taped to the glass of the second set of double doors at the county GOP’s front entrance at 2260 Erin Court.

Asked why members of the press weren’t permitted at the event, a state Republican Party spokesman said he would send an emailed statement to the reporter Thursday evening in time for publication.

He didn’t.

In March, when President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign set up a similar office in Lancaster city, the press was invited and allowed to ask staff questions about their plan to address the president’s flagging support among Pennsylvania’s Black and Latino voters.

Reporters were permitted at the opening of the Trump campaign’s office in Philadelphia on June 4. That marked his first office in the state this year.

Lancaster County’s office is part of the Trump Force 47 initiative to recruit an “official army of volunteer neighborhood organizers” to call voters, watch polls on Election Day, deliver yard signs and host Trump house parties, according to its website.

Trump has visited Pennsylvania three times for campaign events this year, most recently for an April rally in the Lehigh Valley.

Some of Lancaster County’s top Republicans — including Congressman Lloyd Smucker — reiterated their support for Trump as the GOP’s presidential nominee this year after he was found guilty last month of 34 felony charges in a New York court for falsifying business records.

June’s Franklin & Marshall College Poll found the guilty verdict hurt Trump’s support among registered voters in the Republican-leaning Congressional District 10, which covers Dauphin County and parts of Cumberland and York counties.

October 21 is the last day to register to vote in Pennsylvania before Election Day on Nov. 5, according to the Department of State.