Pennsylvania has become America’s home for peculiar politics.

On Wednesday, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan came to the battleground state to campaign for Sen. Pat Toomey in an effort to help his former congressional roommate win re-election.

“We need people like Pat to come back so we can keep our Senate majority, so that we can make good on these reforms that are necessary for securing the American idea,” Ryan said.

In a joint interview in Philadelphia, both men peeled off a wide range of policy issues, including repealing regulations that are impacting jobs, tackling poverty in a meaningful way, strengthening the military, reforming taxes, and putting in place a health care program that makes economic sense and does not penalize struggling working families.

There was one thing they barely mentioned: Donald Trump.

Trump’s events in the state and across the country are consistently rock-star large, nearly always non-ideological and almost always off-the-cuff, and rarely hit on any deep values or agendas that historically conservative campaigns for president do.

Ryan and Toomey are wonks, Trump is a populist; they are policy- and reform-driven, he is energy-driven.

The question is: Does either of the disparate Toomey and Trump styles benefit the other on Election Day?

In any other year, all three men would have held a coordinated event before or after the Ryan-Toomey fundraiser, standing on stage patting each other’s backs and talking about their shared vision for America.

Instead, Toomey pointed to Wednesday’s Quinnipiac poll as proof that Pennsylvania voters are making a very clear distinction between the presidential race and his Senate race. “There are enormous differences between me and Donald Trump,” he said.

The survey showed Toomey with an 8-point lead over Katie McGinty, former chief of staff to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a race that has been been a nail-biter for both candidates since she won the Democratic primary in April, with most polls showing him either tied or behind her since mid-summer.

In the latest poll, McGinty was behind Toomey with women, albeit slightly, men and independent voters. He also held 87 percent-to-9 percent support among Republicans, while McGinty leads only 71-21 among Democrats.

Quinnipiac’s presidential poll on Tuesday showed that Trump had not moved at all — staying 5 percentage points behind Hillary Clinton in the state. Demographically, women supported Clinton over Trump, as did white college graduates, while working-class whites still heavily favored Trump.

You have to wonder: Does Trump’s appeal with working-class whites and disaffected Democrats help Toomey gain a stronger lead, or, conversely, does Toomey’s appeal in the Philadelphia suburbs bump up Trump for a win?

Ryan says that, as the GOP vice presidential nominee in 2012, he “knows all too well” that Pennsylvania tends to play out like the Peanuts comic’s running joke of Lucy promising to not pull the football away from Charlie Brown, but always doing so in the end.

“I twirled that towel over my head so many times,” the Packers fan said of the black-and-gold symbol of the Pittsburgh Steelers nation, the ‘‘Terrible Towel’’ being something he felt compelled to use as he campaigned furiously throughout western Pennsylvania in the closing months of that campaign.

“That is how much I wanted to win that state,” he said, laughing.

He does not say Trump will lose the state, but he also does not say he will win it.

“Look, Pennsylvania is a big battleground state, like my home state of Wisconsin, that is always fought over. I cannot speculate how Pennsylvania will go in the presidential race, but the thing I can say is that it is right in the middle and I think it can easily go one way or the other.”

Despite going for the Democratic nominee every year since 1992, Pennsylvania has become .4 percent more Republican since the 1996 presidential election between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole.

Clinton won that year by taking 28 of the state’s 67 counties, but in every election cycle since then, the Democratic dominance has weakened, and by 2012, President Obama won only 13 of the 67 counties — several by slim margins.

Ryan does not say Trump will lose the state, but he also does not say he will win it.

“It’s all about geography,” said Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College, who oversees the statewide Franklin & Marshall College Poll.

The longtime Pennsylvania politico said he has never seen a year when so many of the down-ballot congressional candidates are running by themselves and not onstage with Trump.

“Toomey is very wise to campaign with Ryan in the suburban counties of Philadelphia. It shows that he is not like Trump and more acceptable to suburban Republicans and independent voters,” said Madonna, whose F&M poll showed McGinty with a 6-point lead over Toomey.

“Keeping that distance helps Toomey,” he said. “And remember, over 22 percent of voters are undecided in this poll. There is a lot of room for movement.”

Madonna says Trump’s Pennsylvania stronghold is deep in the state’s western corner, along with the “T,” which runs across the top of the state and down its center. “Pittsburgh and Philadelphia act as roadblocking bookends for Democrats, because of their large liberal-leaning populations,” he said.

The problem for Clinton is that she is losing working-class whites, and she is weak among the nonwhite voters, according to Madonna. “She is only winning 72 percent of the nonwhite vote — Obama won by 94 percent,” he noted.

“Trump’s problem is still suburban Philadelphia. He needs to convince those voters that he is acceptable,” said Madonna.

It’s still unclear to him who helps whom, who hurts whom and who can win. “It’s a crazy year,” he said.

“Just remember, Pennsylvania is a near-perfect microcosm of the country, so what is happening here is a pretty good indicator of what is happening in the country.”

While Ryan and Toomey barely mentioned Trump, they were both quick to point out President Bill Clinton’s remarks about ObamaCare on Monday.

“Bill Clinton in a moment of candor reinforced what conservatives have been saying for years about the economic impact of ObamaCare,” said Ryan.

“Clinton basically said what everybody knows, which is that this law is failing miserably.”

The former president, the husband of the Democratic nominee, caused a bellyache for his party Monday when he called the current president’s signature health care program “the craziest thing in the world.”

Bill Clinton said the owners and employees of small businesses are getting “killed” by ObamaCare because they earn just a little too much to qualify for any of its subsidies.

“So you’ve got this crazy system where all of a sudden, 25 million more people have health care, and then the people who are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half,” he told a Democratic rally in Michigan.

Ryan said that is why the Republicans are offering a complete alternative to ObamaCare, “one that is patient-centered . . . so that people have the choices that they want and have more accommodations so that we can lower prices.”

Ryan wasn’t surprised that the former president tried to walk back his claims by the end of the day and get back on script, but the speaker added there is no such distance between Hillary and her support for Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

“Hillary is still embracing ObamaCare and doubling down on the government takeover of the health care sector,” he said.

Toomey added, “In politics, you know what the definition of a gaffe is. That is when the politician tells the truth on accident.”

Ryan spent the day in Philadelphia Wednesday for a financial event with Toomey, as well as for a few fundraisers and business tours in the area’s “collar counties” for two Republican congressional candidates — incumbent Rep. Ryan Costello of Chester County and state Sen. Lloyd Smucker, who is running for the Lancaster County-based seat of retiring Republican Joe Pitts.

While Pennsylvania is certainly in Ryan’s cross hairs, it remains to be seen if this parallel universe helps his or Trump’s efforts.

Thirteen of Pennsylvania’s 18 congressional seats are held by Republicans. Ryan said his focus was on holding the state’s strong delegation, as well as delegations across the country, and he added that he has plans to make a final push for Republicans before November, visiting 17 states in October.

“We need to earn the right to put our reforms in place and show the country what a unified Republican Party can accomplish when we break the gridlock of divided government. That is the message I am talking out across the country,” he said.

There is little evidence that the election will keep the Republicans from holding the majority in the House. Currently, the GOP holds 247 seats to the Democrats’ 188. It is likely that the GOP could lose between five and 15 seats in total, enabling it to keep a healthy majority.

While Pennsylvania is certainly in Ryan’s cross hairs — and he hopes to hold on to both its House seats and Toomey’s Senate seat — it remains to be seen if this parallel universe helps his or Trump’s efforts.

Certainly it is a peculiar year in the Keystone State.