Pennsylvania’s Political Divide Increases as Voters Continue to Pull Apart from One Another

By

Image via the Pennsylvania State Capitol.

The midterm election again showed that Pennsylvania’s political divide keeps increasing, with voters pulling even further apart, write Jonathan Lai and Jared Whalen for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

While the Democrats rode a blue wave across the state, Republicans solidified their base in Pennsylvania’s rural areas.

An analysis of returns from more than 9,000 of the state’s precincts in 2018, along with data from previous elections, shows an acceleration of this long trend of voters moving in opposite directions. This has created partisan camps along easily recognizable geographic lines.

The core of the Democratic base is urban areas, with their adjacent suburbs a wider extension of that stronghold. Meanwhile, rural areas that were already Republican are shifting further to the right.

“Sometimes you think, ‘Wow, can you get more polarized?’”  said Chris Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College.

Analysis shows that pockets of blue have been disappearing from central and southwest Pennsylvania. However, in the suburbs, the mix of Republican and Democratic voters has now become concretely Democrat.

This has the potential to worsen the gridlock in Harrisburg and shape Pennsylvania as a battleground state for the 2020 elections.

Read more about politics in Pennsylvania in the Philadelphia Inquirer here.

Join Our Community

Never miss a Delaware County story!

"*" indicates required fields

Hidden
DT Yes
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Advertisement