Biden's old backyard now a key Pennsylvania battleground filled with 'purple' votes
Voters in northeastern Pennsylvania spoke to Fox News Digital about the 2024 election cycle from the streets of Scranton, which is the heart of the battleground county of Lackawanna.
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."
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.
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.
Kveragas told Fox News Digital that he is an independent who "voted against Hillary" in 2016, before becoming a Trump supporter while evaluating the 45th president’s record in office.
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"He straightened out the economy. He got the border under control. He cut regulations. He did pretty much everything you would want a — a realistic person would want — a president to do. So with this election, it's primarily the economy, obviously. My retirement was up 40% under Trump. I lost the 40%, plus another 20% under Biden. So things are terrible there. The border, which we're being overrun. Obviously, it's not just a matter of jobs. It's a matter of housing and crime fighting, fentanyl, which has run rampant. Fentanyl is killing more people than guns," Kveragas said.
On the flip side, a Harris supporter who identified himself as Michael told Fox Digital that "women’s rights" is his top priority this election cycle.
"I believe that every woman should have a choice to make their own decision," he said.
Michael explained that the economy and inflation have also affected his life, saying that he works two jobs to pay the bills and that expenses were much cheaper a decade ago. When asked if he feels Harris is better equipped to handle the economy over Trump, Michael argued that while Trump is a "businessman," he will "ruin the country."
"Donald Trump, he is a businessman, yes. But he's going to ruin the country. He's going to ruin it. And Kamala Harris, you know, she is more steady-handed. She doesn't think with an iron fist, and we don't need that. We're not trying to go to war with China. [We're trying to] actually progress in this life. That's the only thing that we do in this life is to share information and progress," Michael said.
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Trump’s and Harris’ campaigns have respectively heaped loads of attention on the Keystone State this year, with both candidates repeatedly visiting the massive state, from its rural areas in the rolling hills to industrial cities in the coal and rust belts that run across the state.
Fox News Digital spoke to both a Trump campaign volunteer and a Harris campaign volunteer, who both work to register Lackawanna voters, door knock and motivate residents to cast a ballot.
Susanne Green is a Trump campaign volunteer and former Democratic voter who began supporting Trump and Republicans in the last decade.
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"I grew up in a Democrat household. Here in the valley in Lackawanna County, we believed in ‘Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you could do for your country,’" Green told Fox Digital, quoting President Kennedy’s powerful inaugural address in 1961. "And it really does choke me up some because it's truthful."
Green said that her politics have not changed, but that the Democratic Party has morphed into something she can no longer identify with.
"I haven't changed. The Democrat Party changed. I was a Democrat. I registered as a Democrat when I turned 18, and I voted Democrat in every election until 2016, when I really saw that that wasn’t the direction that our country needed. Our country really needs to really get back to patriotism and believing that our country is great," she said.
Green said that when she speaks to locals about the election to motivate them to vote, many Democratic voters will balk at the GOP’s abortion platform. Green said she explains to such voters, most notably suburban women, that Republicans for Choice has long been a powerful vote in the party and that the GOP is not working to place a wholesale ban on abortion.
"I think we can all agree, or most of us can agree, that it should be legal and rare," Green said in a hat tip to the famous Bill Clinton formulation that abortions be "safe, legal and rare," a sentiment that has since been purged from the party’s platform in favor of more lax abortion access.
"That's how most women that I talk to in my experience over my whole lifetime have said that we wanted abortion to stay legal, but rare."
Andrew Cutillo, a Harris campaign volunteer in Lackawanna County, spoke to Fox News Digital via a phone call this week and said that he has supported Harris since her campaign launch this summer and touted the VP as someone who can "intuitively" connect with Northeastern Pennsylvania voters based on her middle class upbringing.
"Kamala Harris is someone who, you know, intuitively understands what it's like to grow up or live in Northeast Pennsylvania and Scranton, Pennsylvania, as she grew up middle class. Her kind of focus has been on building a strong middle class," Cutillo said. "Her focus is on supporting families and understanding what families and communities need, that they can live their lives, that they can not worry about paying grocery bills, not worry about paying all the expenses that come with just trying to raise your family."
Cutillo added that when he's out door-knocking or speaking with traditionally Republican voters, including his own dad, people have pulled away from Trump because they are "concerned for democracy," and view Harris as a potential president who would "govern for the people who don't agree with her, too."
He said despite the fevered political focus on Scranton and Pennsylvania at large this election cycle, Republican and Democratic neighbors in Northeastern Pennsylvania have and will remain friends no matter how the election shakes out despite any portrayal of "divisiveness" in the battleground state.
Voters in the area remarked that they have been inundated with campaign efforts, with West saying he’s ignored some of the door knockers.
"I'm flooded with ads, flooded. They have knocked on the door. But I didn't answer the door because I saw what it was. But we are definitely bombarded with ads," West said.
Soentgerath said that he’s seen "a big push from both sides. And again, with all due respect to either side, the bottom line is, if you want change, get up, go to work and pull that lever on Nov. 5."
While Michael remarked that while he hasn’t seen "too much out here yet," he noted he has seen more Trump ads than Harris ads.
"So that just means we need to work harder," Michael said.
Tony Monopoli is a Scranton native who has since moved to another key battleground state, Georgia, and told Fox News Digital that he is supporting Harris in the election. Monopoli was visiting Scranton with his brothers and spoke to Fox News Digital outside of the Lackawanna County Courthouse, where there is a veterans memorial.
"I think her plans to support small businesses by offering a $50,000 tax credit for small business owners is a big deal. I think her plan to offer $25,000 in first-time homebuyers' assistance is a big deal, given the cost of homes today. And also, the $6,000 child tax credit for the first year of a child's life is a big deal," he explained of his support of Harris.
Fox Digital asked Monopoli if he’s seen more or less campaigning efforts from either candidate in Pennsylvania vs. Georgia, where both candidates are also heavily campaigning for votes.
"I'd say it's about the same," he said. Remarking that he hasn’t "really seen any different" in either area.
Pennsylvania will again serve as a key battleground state this election cycle as former President Donald Trump and President Biden are anticipated to face a rematch in a state that narrowly voted for Trump in 2016, and elected Biden in 2020 at a 1.17% margin.
For Soentgerath, he encouraged voters to do their own homework before casting their ballots, leaning on his concerns over the economy, he said voters should simply review their pay stubs from just a few years ago to help determine their vote.
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"Ask yourself, were you better off now, or were you better off four or five years ago? Look at your last pay stub, your last W-2 form. Look at your last mortgage payment. How about your automobile insurance? How about Christmases when you want to buy things for your loved ones as today? Check it out. Weigh it out. And then take it from there."
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