Biden’s old backyard now a key Pennsylvania battleground filled with ‘purple’ votes

SCRANTON, Pa.— While northeastern Pennsylvania’s Lackawanna County has been a Democratic stronghold in state and federal elections, voters on the streets of the old coal mining region say the area runs “purple” and will likely be a nail-bitter of an election.

“It’s not as blue as people think. It’s more purple underneath because people are afraid to say anything around here because they think that there’s going to be retaliation. That’s an old thing that goes back generations around here,” David Kveragas told Fox News Digital from a pizza shop on the main drag of Scranton as a storm sloshed rain across the Wyoming Valley last week. 

Lackawanna County is home to cities and towns such as Scranton, Carbondale and Throop, mixing cityscapes backdropped by factories of a bygone era, and dotted with suburbs and expansive farms. The county has long voted blue in state and national elections, last throwing its support behind a Republican in 1984 during President Ronald Reagan’s blowout election when he won each state except Washington, D.C., and Minnesota — the home state of Reagan’s competitor that year, Walter Mondale.

The county has trended right in recent elections, however, teeing up a heightened election battle that will likely help determine how the key battleground state will swing come Nov. 5.

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Between 2000 and 2012, Democratic presidential nominees earned between 56% and 63% of the vote, U.S. News and World Report found. That standard fell below 50% in 2016, when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton unsuccessfully ran against former President Donald Trump, but still carried a win for the Democratic Party’s ticket even with the lessened support. 

President Biden was born and raised in Scranton until the age of 10, when his family moved to Delaware. Biden’s hometown status likely helped boost his popularity among locals in the 2020 election, winning 53.58% of the vote to Trump’s 45.23% that year. 

As the election cycle comes down to its final five weeks, Fox News Digital spoke to voters on the streets of Scranton to ask about their top election concerns and who they will cast their ballot for come November. Fox News Digital received a mixed bag of responses, with some voters proudly declaring Vice President Kamala Harris’ support of abortion access earned their vote, while Trump supporters said voters only need to look at their pay stubs from the 2016-2020 era compared to today to determine their ballot choice.

“If you are a minority and a woman, what is the better choice? I’m not here to knock Trump or any candidate. But as a woman of Puerto Rican descent, I feel it’s really important for us to really sit and discuss the pros and cons of each candidate. But especially as a woman,” a local mom named Adrianna, who is supporting Harris in the election, told Fox News Digital. 

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Adrianna is a mom to a young boy and said that inflation issues and childcare issues have rocked her day-to-day life as she has tried to find a daycare for her son for more than a year. When asked if she believes Harris will correct inflation if elected as president after serving as vice president for three and a half years, she responded, “I hope so.”

“If you are a minority and a woman, what is the better choice?” – Pennsylvania mom Adrianna 

Adrianna said that while inflation concerns her, abortion is her top voting issue. 

“I believe nobody should tell a woman what to do with her body, especially — not to sound sexist — but a man. I think that should be an individual decision that a woman should make,” she said.

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For Trump supporters, the economy, inflation, national security and immigration came in as top concerns for voters. 

“The price of gas is a big issue with me. I do a lot of driving. And I remember back in the day, you know, when you got $20, it’d fill up your gas tank. It’s just going up and up,” Trump supporter John Soentgerath told Fox News Digital.

“With all due respect to my Democratic friends, I have a lot of them, [under] this previous administration there has been less take-home pay. The prices of gas [is] up, food. And I like to eat like anybody else. You tell me any mother or father that doesn’t want to put food on the table for their kids, give them treats, ice cream, goodies and things of that nature,” Soentgerath added.

Larry West of Scranton told Fox News Digital from a bus stop near The Marketplace at Steamtown that Trump earned his vote for his national security platform as wars continue raging in Ukraine and Israel, saying Harris appears “weak” on foreign affairs. 

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“I’m voting for Donald Trump. And I just believe that as far as globally, I don’t feel that Kamala Harris has what it takes to represent the United States globally. Like especially with all that’s going on with Russia and China,” West said.

 I don’t feel that Kamala Harris has what it takes to represent the United States globally. – Scranton voter Larry West 

Original News Source Link – Fox News

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