Pennsylvania primary: Biden pushes for enhanced child tax credit and visits his childhood home in Scranton

President Joe Biden spoke to campaign volunteers - about 100 in person and hundreds gathered on zoom in a union hall decked out in campaign posters.

The memories of the day seemed to hit heavily for Biden, who dabbed at his eyes with a tissue as he was introduced by Megan Bell, the daughter of a childhood friend of his.

Bell recalled stories her father used to tell about him and Biden sharing a desk in elementary school and the two young boys “raising hell.” She also remembers being a young girl and hearing Biden talk about meeting his first wife, Neilia.

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of State Rep. Kevin Boyle, Philadelphia police said Tuesday, after Boyle allegedly violated a protection from abuse order.

Boyle, 44, a Democrat seeking reelection to an eighth term in next week’s primary election, was expected to be charged with violation of a PFA by communication, said police department spokesperson Eric Gripp.

House Democrats poured $72,000 into the campaign of Boyle’s campaign challenger Sean Dougherty, according to campaign finance reports filed last week. Boyle’s state Capitol security access was revoked in February, following an outburst at a Montgomery County bar that circulated on social media, and he was also stripped of his committee chairmanship.

President Joe Biden left his former house in Scranton after about an hour and 45 minutes of visiting with neighbors inside and shooting some campaign material. He walked out holding hands with several kids wearing St. Clare/St. Paul’s apparel, a local Catholic school in the area.

He greeted neighbors gathered on the lawn. A marker on a telephone poll designated the home an official trolley stop on a Scranton tour.

“Take him down, Joe,” one neighbor said as Biden smiled. “Anything we can do to help,” another man said.

President Joe Biden is making a familiar stop on his visit to Scranton, popping into the Washington Avenue home he lived in until he was 10.

Neighbors lined up on Washington Avenue as the motorcade wound by on a sunny Spring day, some holding Biden signs and waving American flags.

As the motorcade parked and Biden walked up to the three-story colonial, a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters, gathered about 100 yards away and chanted, accusing Biden of being “complicit with genocide.”

Pennsylvania House Democrats are throwing money behind their support of Sean Dougherty over incumbent State Rep. Kevin Boyle in the April 23 primary election.

The House Democratic Campaign Committee poured a total of $72,000 into Dougherty’s campaign for the Northeast Philadelphia-based seat, according to campaign finance reports filed last week.

The contribution was part $167,000 that Dougherty has raised since he joined the race two months ago. That amount is a significant sum for a state House campaign and signals that Democrats see holding that seat as critical to maintaining their narrow state House majority in November. Boyle, meanwhile, did not file a campaign finance report as is required of all candidates under state law.

Speaking at a campaign event in Scranton on Tuesday, President Joe Biden proposed to reinstate an enhanced child tax credit that temporarily gave qualifying parents $300 a month — up to $3,600 per year — during the COVID pandemic.

Biden's plan would raise the current maximum child tax credit up from $2,000 per child to $3,600 per child under the age of 6, or to $3,000 per child aged 6 and up.

The plan would also make the child tax credit fully refundable, meaning lower-income earners would be eligible to receive the full credit.

Manning a vote-by-mail booth earlier this month at a gathering of conservatives in Camp Hill, Pa., beleaguered Arnaud Armstrong had a difficult message for his fellow Pennsylvania Republicans.

They can embrace mail voting or they can keep losing elections.

“Enough is enough,” said Armstrong, the executive director of Win Again PAC, a group trying to break Democrats’ “mail-in monopoly” by persuading GOP voters to cast ballots by mail. “The Democrats are on the field scoring points while Republicans are in the locker room waiting for the game to start.”

Counties across Pennsylvania have begun mailing out ballots and voters who requested them should receive them in the coming days.

Voters can track the status of their mail-in ballots using this link to know when it is heading to them. Once they return the ballot they can also use the tracking system to know when their ballot has been received.

Ballots must be returned to county election offices by 8 p.m. on election day in order to be counted.

Scranton Joe is coming back to Pennsylvania.

President Joe Biden is returning to Scranton and to a campaign message from 2020 — that he is the best candidate for the middle class, while former president Donald Trump is the candidate for the millionaire class.

“President Biden sees the world from kitchen tables in Scranton, Donald Trump sees it from his country club in Mar-a-Lago,” Biden’s campaign said in a preview of a speech Biden is slated to give at the Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple on Tuesday.

If it wasn’t obvious already, President Joe Biden’s campaign is laser-focused on Pennsylvania.

Tuesday will mark the seventh time this year he or Vice President Kamala Harris has come to the state, and he's spending most of the week in Pennsylvania. Biden's tour of the commonwealth starts with a speech on tax policy Tuesday in Scranton, followed by stops in Pittsburgh on Wednesday and near Philadelphia on Thursday.

In a press call ahead of the visit, the Biden campaign's Battleground States Director Dan Kanninen called Pennsylvania “the biggest battleground state in the country that will decide the election.”

Pennsylvanians hoping to vote by mail must request their ballot by 5 p.m. Tuesday. They can do so online, by mail or in person with their county election board.

Those ballots must then be returned to voters county election boards by 8 p.m. on election day. Voters can mail those ballots back or hand deliver them to county election offices or ballot drop-boxes provided by counties.

“I urge those who want to vote by mail to return their ballot as soon as possible to ensure that their vote will be counted," Pennsylvania Secretary Al Schmidt said in a briefing Monday.

As steady rain fell on the windows outside the large meeting room, Sen. Bob Casey talked about corporate greed, his soft, flat voice just audible over the downpour.

“They’re ripping families off,” said Casey (D., Pa.). “They’re still doing it. And I have to continue to prosecute this case until they get the message.”

The roundtable discussion was stiff and a bit sleepy but researched and on message — much like Casey.