🌅 Hello, Monday. Let’s have a great week, okay?
Weather in Pennsylvania
☁️ Erie | Partly clear, 55
🌤️ State Higher School | Mostly clear, 60
🌤️Scranton | Mostly clear, 62
Sports PA
🏈 Steelers (8-2) | Baltimore 18-16 | Thu vs. Cleveland
🏈 Eagles (8-2) | Sun vs. LA Rams
🏈 Pennsylvania State (9-1) | Purdue 49-10 | Saturday vs. Minnesota
🏈 Pitt (7-3) | Clemson 20-24 | Saturday vs. Louisville
🏈 Temple (3-7) | Florida Atlantic 18-15 (overtime) | Friday vs. UTSA
🏀 Sixes (2-10) | Orlando 86-98 | Pon vs. Miami
🏒 Flyers (8-8-2) | Buffalo 5-2 | Pon vs. Colorado
🏒 Penguins (7-10-3) | San Jose 4-3/SO | Tuesday vs. Tampa Bay
🎂 Happy birthday. Cake and candles for Representative Jared Solomon.
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🗞️ Good morning, Pennsylvania. Find the latest on political events in the Keystone State with the PoliticsPA Playbook. We’ll deliver all the latest headlines in an easy-to-read format every weekday at 8am. And it’s free. Add your name to the list and sign up now.
The most vital story
1. How Trump won Pennsylvania: Increased turnout in rural counties, suppressed Democratic vote
“Donald Trump he almost repeated his path to the White House in 2016, destroying the so-called Blue Wall of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, becoming only the second president elected to a second non-consecutive term.
“Democrats have just lost touch with their working-class base, and they have done so in every respect in terms of the policies they pursue, the language they use to speak to the public, and their personality.” – Mercyhurst University Professor of Political Science Joe Morris he said. “Pennsylvania is essentially a blue-collar state where people get up and go make a living. And Democrats have kind of lost sight of that.” (Erie Times-News)
Elsewhere
Is this the end of white working class Democrats? “Harris and other Democrats also faced a deepening, newly troubling perception problem: the widespread belief among working-class Americans that the Democratic Party does not fully understand their struggles — and in some cases outright despises them.” (New York Times)
How technology has impacted the “information environment” of the 2024 elections. “Advances in artificial intelligence technology and a changing ‘information environment’ have undoubtedly impacted how voters campaign and make decisions in the 2024 elections, an elections and democracy expert has said.” (Penn Capital Star)
John Fetterman Says Butler Shooting and Elon Musk Made Trump Win in Pennsylvania. “Fetterman said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Trump was the strongest he had ever been, entering the third of his three presidential races in Pennsylvania. ”(Pittsburgh Postal Newspaper)
Trump made big gains among blue-collar workers. Is he really on their side? “The fresh administration will have to reconcile the GOP’s classic resistance to unions and workplace rules with ‘New Right’ support for workers.” (Wall Street Journal)
Country
2. A look at the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania as the recount begins
“Now that we have entered the recount stage in the U.S. Senate contest in Pennsylvania in between Dave McCormick AND Bob Caseylet’s take a look at the unofficial results around the Republic of Poland.
McCormick won 55 of the state’s 67 counties, and Casey had bigs in Allegheny, Bucks, Center, Chester, Dauphin, Delaware, Erie, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Monroe, Montgomery and Philadelphia.
Casey’s dozen still shows the three-term Democrat ahead by just under 24,000 votes as of Friday afternoon, but by just 0.43 percent, triggering the state’s mandatory recount law.” (PolitykaPA)
Elsewhere
A new court fight erupts over Pennsylvania’s dating requirement before a key recount. “At least three Pennsylvania counties are accepting and counting absentee ballots from last week’s election that do not have the correct date on the envelope, setting up a new legal conflict in a long-running dispute over how to handle those ballots.” (Let him vote)
Bob Casey is not giving up the US Senate race. But he also doesn’t deny the integrity of the election results. “As Pennsylvania’s razor-thin U.S. Senate race heads toward a recount, allies of President-elect Donald Trump say Sen. Bob Casey is working to steal the election, drawing false parallels between Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results . and Casey’s decision not to budge on his re-election bid as votes are counted. However, there is a fundamental difference between these two scenarios.” (Questioner from Philadelphia)
Pennsylvania Senate race, Recount sparks litigation, criticism. “The decision to recount the Pennsylvania Senate race is drawing criticism from across the political spectrum, prompting lawsuits and calls for bad sportsmanship.” (Washington’s times)
Around the Republic of Poland
3. From student loans to reproductive rights, how a new Trump presidency could impact PA
“Deporting 230,000 unauthorized immigrants in Pennsylvania. Cutting subsidies for health insurance, leaving as many as 32,000 additional Pennsylvanians unable to afford insurance. Expanding Oil and Gas Drilling in Western Pennsylvania.
By voting to return, Keystone State residents were able to express their anger at high egg prices Donald Trump to the White House.
Once he takes office in January, Trump will be able to propose proposals that would affect federal taxes, the ability to forgive some student loan debt, the cost of health insurance and possibly allowing repayment. it is more difficult to obtain a medical abortion.” (Pittsburgh Postal Newspaper)
Elsewhere
PA agriculture industry braces for raids and deportations under proposed Trump policy. “At the beginning of President-elect Donald Trump’s first term eight years ago, mushroom and fruit growers across Pennsylvania experienced disruptions from federal raids. Their main target: illegal immigrants. “What is to come in a second Trump administration promises to be much more destructive.” (PennLive)
A Philadelphia council member is leading a discussion about changing the council’s “no candidacy” clause. “On the City Council, six members left before the end of the last term to run for mayor in 2023. One member who remained introduced legislation on Thursday to eliminate this requirement.” (Philadelphia Tribune)
Editorial
4. What do you mean
- Reality: La La Land’s Ed Gainey’s budget address. (Pittsburgh Postal Newspaper)
- It is time for the district attorney to investigate concerns about ethics violations in Dauphin County government. (PennLive)
- What masculinity means in America. (Devi Lockwood)
- What Black America Learned from Donald Trump’s Reelection (Solomon Jones)
- How the Democratic Party Must Change to Win in 2028 (Bruce Ledewitz)
- How a Republican should change Washington. (Nathan Benefield)
- Democracy dies in the airy of day as Democrats break the law to facilitate Casey. (Kyle Sammin)
- High labor costs in the office. (Grandstand overview)
1 item
5. Pennsylvania cities are falling on the list of best places to retire in US news
“After Pennsylvania cities took the top five spots on U.S. News and World Report’s list of best places to retire in 2024, no Keystone State cities made the top 30 this year.
Harrisburg, Reading, Lancaster, Scranton and Allentown made last year’s list of the five best places to retire, but cities traditionally considered retirement hotbeds topped the rankings in 2025. Naples, Florida, took first place, followed by Virginia Beach, Virginia. New York is third.
Pittsburgh is the highest-ranking city in Pennsylvania on this year’s list, ranking 33rd in the country. This is a significant drop from 10th place last year.” (Philadelphia Business Journal)
