MIDDLETOWN, Penn. — Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan spearheaded a last-minute effort by Republicans to put Pennsylvania in play on Tuesday with a trip to the Keystone State on Saturday.
As Election Day draws near, Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney's campaign has tried to expand its path to 270 electoral votes by campaigning and spending money in Pennsylvania, a state which last went for a GOP candidate in a presidential election in 1988.
“If we win Pennsylvania, we save America in three days,” Ryan told a group of supporters standing outside his rally at the Harrisburg International Airport.
President Barack Obama carried Pennsylvania during the 2008 election by more than 10 points, but in recent days, nearly $10 million in ad buys by the Romney campaign, the Republican National Committee and GOP super PACs have infiltrated the state.
“Can I just tell you how red Pennsylvania’s gonna be on Tuesday? Because I know how red it’s gonna, it’s gonna be this red, okay,” Sen. Pat Toomey, Ryan’s former roommate on Capitol Hill, said pointing to his bright red jacket.
Related: Polls: Obama stays ahead in Ohio, deadlocked with Romney in Fla.
Republican Gov. Tom Corbett also joined Ryan Saturday, just three days before the election and believes his state could determine a very tight race between Obama and Romney on Tuesday.
“The one thing I know about Pennsylvania, and I hope you remember: We are the Keystone State. Right? No offense to my friend in Virginia, or to the rest of the country. But we are the Keystone State to this nation and we are the Keystone State to this election,” Corbett said.
Slideshow: On the campaign trail
The GOP VP nominee has held three other campaign events in Pennsylvania over the last three months, but holding a rally in the state on the last weekend before the election is typically reserved for key battleground states — further indicating the GOPs desire to win the state.
“I say in 3 days, we win, Obama loses, how does that sound?” Ryan said to a very enthusiastic 2,000-person crowd before heading to the battleground states of Virginia and Florida to wrap up the last Saturday of the campaign.