Before Donald Trump arrived at the Butler County Fairgrounds in Pennsylvania, steelworkers in Pittsburgh rallied for President Joe Biden, receiving adoration from some of the rural poor.
WTAE Pittsburgh reports:
“In Pennsylvania alone, Donald Trump and his administration have cost us more than 275,000 jobs. At the same time, Joe Biden and his administration have created more than 500,000 jobs in less than four years in office. Thousands of jobs,” United Steelworkers District 10 Director Bernie Hall told the crowd.
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At the rally at Steelworkers headquarters, Allegheny-Fayette Labor Council President Darrin Kelly and Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey both spoke out in support of Biden.
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Kelly praised Biden for “the dedication of a man who served this country as a public servant for fifty years. You side with that man. We have great confidence in him, his administration and the policies he has pursued in our state’s elections.”
Meanwhile, Trump will return to Butler County, which some people unfamiliar with the area might call Pittsburgh, but that’s wildly inaccurate. Butler County is 35 miles from Pittsburgh. The place where Trump held the rally is one of the most economically depressed areas in southwestern Pennsylvania. Butler County’s economy is anchored by the booming Cranberry Township area. The rest of the country, like its rural neighbors, is dominated by Republicans, rural people, and the poor.
Butler County hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson in 1968. The goal was to squeeze out all the rural red Republican votes he could get out of the area.
The contrast between Pittsburgh steelworkers and Trump rallies is the real race that will determine which candidate will win Pennsylvania. Biden won Pennsylvania in 2020 by boosting Democratic turnout in rural red counties.
If Biden can do the same thing in 2024, he will be well-positioned to carry the state of his birth a second time. While some Democrats are weak in the legs after the first debate, steelworkers stand solidly with Joe Biden.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of Society of Professional Journalists and American Political Science Association
