Democrats have won Pennsylvania in every presidential election since 1992, and one reason the party chose Philadelphia for its convention is to keep the state in its column. The most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll, taken before the parties’ conventions, shows Hillary Clinton leads in the state by nine points.
Still, Donald Trump’s ability to connect with white working-class voters, roughly half of the state’s voting population, gives Republicans hope that they can carry the state this year. The Clinton campaign’s challenge is to make sure Trump doesn’t tally enough votes in white, rust-belt regions to overcome her significant advantage among educated suburbanites and minorities in and near Philadelphia and elsewhere.
A recent visit to Westmoreland County, outside Pittsburgh, indicates her task won’t be easy. At a big Elliott Co. turbine plant in Jeannette, five factory workers, all local officials of the United Steelworkers, which has endorsed the Democratic nominee, said they didn’t plan to vote for her. They cited things like her personal ethics, the sincerity of her opposition to trade deals and her support for gun control.
“It’s not that we support Trump,” says Ed Palmer, a 51-year-old machinist, “It’s that we don’t support Hillary.”
Adds union local president Mark McKlveen, a 55-year-old assembler: “I’m struggling.”
The five counties that ring Pittsburgh’s Allegheny County are the kind that lean heavily toward Trump, who hasn’t released the stops on his expected trip next week. All the counties are more than 90% white and above the national average in manufacturing employment. All but one is below the national average for bachelor’s degrees.
