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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Matthew Cantor

He voted Trump in 2016, Biden in 2020. He’s the kind of voter candidates are desperate to swing

man and woman holding hands at outdoor table
Scott and Theresa Richardson outside their restaurant, Occasionally Yours, in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Courtesy the Swarthmorean

For the past 35 years, Scott Richardson and his wife, Theresa, have run a small, cheerful restaurant and catering business outside Philadelphia. Occasionally Yours has long been a community meeting spot in the town of Swarthmore. More recently, it has taken on another, unexpected, role – on the stage of national politics.

Richardson is an independent-minded small business owner in a key swing state – exactly the kind of person US presidential candidates are desperate to woo. In 2016, when Pennsylvania went Republican for the first time since 1988, he voted for Donald Trump. Then, in 2020, dismayed by Trump’s Covid response, he switched to Joe Biden, in no uncertain terms. Richardson’s vote tracked how the state went in both elections.

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