Polls have both presidential candidates running neck and neck in Pennsylvania, so the Pennsylvania run for president will have to be personal.

For the candidates, reading the mood of the voters will be critical, writes Michelle Cottle for The New York Times.

“We’re at a point with polarization and politics where policy matters less than emotion,” said Berwood Yost, head of the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College.

A winning candidate will need some kind of a vision, he said.

 “My big fear is that people are exhausted by the chaos,” said U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, whose 5th District covers all of Delaware County.  

Winning Pennsylvania means visiting wildly different parts of the state, traditional Democratic areas like Philadelphia and its collar counties, but also Lancaster, and the Lehigh Valley, where Republicans dominate, and in Allentown, which now has a Hispanic majority.

The economy is a top Pennsylvania concern. Democracy under threat and women’s reproductive rights are a concern.  Gun violence is a worry in Philadelphia. Young state voters are angry about the war in Gaza, and the opioid crisis has hit hard.

Then there’s state issues like energy production and fracking, pitting local prosperity against the environment.

Read more about campaigning in Pennsylvania in The New York Times.