How to Win Pennsylvania

Originally published at City Journal

With its 19 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is the nation’s largest swing state. Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump have inundated the commonwealth with rallies and events, angling for the support of voters, who, from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, hold a remarkable range of values and beliefs.

In their national campaigns, Harris and Trump have fixated on wedge issues—immigration and abortion, respectively—to fire up their bases, and the media have focused on the culture war. But economic stability and the cost of living remain Pennsylvanians’ chief concerns.

Recent polling from my organization, the Commonwealth Foundation, illustrates this. While inflation has slowed, we found that voters still list it as the country’s biggest problem, with 34 percent saying that rising prices have affected their budgets “a great deal,” and 60 percent holding a negative outlook on the state’s economy.

Read more at City Journal