Voters are dissatisfied and bearish on the economy in a place where the Republican legislature and Democratic executive just can’t seem to get along. In that respect, to describe the United States is to describe the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The Keystone State, worth 20 electoral college votes in the presidential election, is nominally a battleground that favors Democratic nominees. The last Republican to win it in a general election was Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush was the only one to capture more than 47 percent there since 1988. But Pennsylvania has a few characteristics that distinguish it from other swing states this year, and they make the commonwealth resemble a microcosm of the nationwide populist phenomenon.
Recommended Stories
Print subscriber? Click here to login/register your account
Digital subscriber? Click here to login/register your account.