| | | Drip...Drip.....Drip.....
The Forgotten Counties Will Make Their Voices Heard
<snip>
Miller did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016; he didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton either. He is a retired insurance manager and does not like what he sees coming from the party he has been a part of his adult life. “I just get tired of the game playing that the Democrats are doing,” he says. “Everything’s just so disgusting today. Something has to change. Well, something’s going to change.”
“I’m afraid something’s going to break out here, and I’m pretty sure it will,” he said. He’s concerned that what happened to patrons having dinner at an outside cafe in Pittsburgh, when protesters swarmed them, will find its way here and other bucolic settings across the country.
Miller is not alone. For the first time anyone can remember, Cambria County is no longer dominated by Democratic voter registrations. It lost that dominance quietly on Labor Day weekend when Pennsylvania Department of State registration numbers showed Republicans having 37,951 registrations and Democrats holding 37,826.
Four years ago, Democrats still dominated by 12,000 registrations. Eight years ago, it was nearly double that. Despite the lead in registrations, both Trump and Mitt Romney prevailed over their Democratic rivals in this county.
Yet it was not that long ago that then-candidate Barack Obama won here over Republican John McCain, and not that long ago that Democrats had a 30,000-voter registration advantage over Republicans.
<snip>
Seven years later, a Republican presidential candidate and Senate candidate, Pat Toomey, won the county. So have two Republican members of Congress who represent the county. Republicans also now have two state House members who are running unopposed in November and half of the county row offices.
Kulback said for counties such as hers to help Trump over the line, they not only have to hit the 2016 numbers but also exceed them.
“We have to hit 60,000 votes here, and, honestly, I think we have a shot of exceeding that,” she said.
As the line formed for people to enter the storefront, Kulback’s goals did not appear out of reach. Democratic nominee Joe Biden needs to cut in and win back some of this rural vote to win the state, while Trump needs them to hold their enthusiastic 2016 numbers and push for 1% more.
<much more> |
|
