Andrew Lewis in Newsweek: Lowering the Cost of Living Key to Winning Keystone State

Harrisburg, Pa, Sept. 25 – With the presidential election just weeks away and Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes up for grabs, the cost-of-living crisis is the most prominent issue for Pennsylvanians, wrote Commonwealth Foundation’s new President and CEO Andrew J. Lewis for Newsweek. 

In his op-ed, Lewis explains that both Trump and Harris have an uphill battle to address rising inflation and energy costs. He argues that while Harris needs to backtrack on certain policies during her vice presidency, both candidates need to have sensible, concrete plans to convince Pennsylvanians that their everyday expenses will go down. 

Writes Lewis: 

What will it take for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris to win Pennsylvania—arguably the most important state in the 2024 election?  

The answer is simple. They must address the worries that I’ve heard from Pennsylvanians every day for the past few years. For most of that time, I worked in home construction, and virtually everyone I talked to about this told me the same thing: The cost of living is out of control. … 

Perhaps the most important thing that either candidate can do is give a full-throated defense of American energy. That matters because Pennsylvania is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the country, and when our state is pumping at full throttle, costs inevitably go down. 

Our natural gas leads to lower utility bills and lower prices of groceries and everyday goods, all of which require energy to create and transport. Natural gas is equally essential to making housing more affordable, because it lowers the cost of materials. Commonwealth Foundation polling found that 81 percent of Pennsylvanians say energy affordability is important to their decision at the ballot box. 

Read Lewis’s full op-ed here. 

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The Commonwealth Foundation turns free-market ideas into public policies, fostering prosperity for all Pennsylvanians.