BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. — Nestled within this quaint region by the Delaware River, among its bright autumn foliage and impressive Halloween decor, is an almost silent battle for the presidency.
Depending on whom you ask, former President Donald Trump is revered or Vice President Kamala Harris is a historic figure who will deliver America from an era of political darkness. Or, for both the Republican and Democratic nominees, the opposite is true, according to someone else. But no matter which party folks belonged to, their answers were noticeably short and everyone was ready to put the campaign behind them.
Costumed children and their parents will go door to door along Washington Avenue in Newtown on Thursday night for Halloween trick-or-treating amid trees bursting in vibrant shades of fall reds, oranges and yellows. They likely will not be discussing the latest campaign news as they dodge the campaign signs for Trump, Harris and local candidates that line the street and clash awkwardly with elaborate porch and yard decorations of witches, goblins and jack-o’-lanterns.
“We’re divided around here. It’s basically 50-50,” a Trump voter who identified himself only as Bill said Tuesday morning outside a Newtown post office. “But we don’t talk about it. You don’t really hear people talking about politics.
“And I won’t talk about it with my customers,” added Bill, wearing a sweatshirt with the logo of his contracting company. “Let’s just say that they can come back on you in a real hurry if you disagree. It’s definitely not good for business.”
To the chagrin of Bill and other Republican voters interviewed here earlier this week, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the county by just under 2,000 votes in 2016 and President Joe Biden topped Trump by over 17,000 votes in 2020.
Steve Santarsiero, a Pennsylvania state senator and chair of the Bucks County Democratic Committee, is leading what has shifted into a get-out-the-vote operation — and said there is a scenario under which Harris could outperform Biden here.
But, during a Tuesday interview in the Harris campaign’s Newtown office, Santarsiero was far from confident that the vice president would secure enough votes to become the 47th president of an increasingly divided United States.
“I’ve run for office a few times. And in the races that I lost, I knew. It was kind of just a gut feeling. But I knew both times, about two weeks out, that it wasn’t quite right and just wasn’t gonna happen,” he said, peering out a sun-splashed window. “I don’t have that feeling this time. Now, does that mean Vice President Harris is going to win? I think she could win.”
‘Beyond inflation’
Bucks County Democratic officials are making a push to ensure that voters on their side who have requested a mail-in ballot actually return them. Despite Biden winning the county in 2020 by 17,345 votes, around 10,000 ballots were never returned. Party leaders here are hoping their efforts could help Harris win the county by even more — while also predicting, in Santarsiero’s words, a “razor-close” outcome in Bucks, in the must-win commonwealth and in the seven battleground states expected to decide the winner.
“We’re working for maximum turnout on Election Day and getting these mail-in ballots back,” he said, adding that as of last Friday, 74 percent had been received. But there are unknown unknowns, as former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once said, clouding the picture in this crucial county.
“You have a generation of people who traditionally haven’t voted but did in 2022 because of the Dobbs decision and in the wake of Jan. 6,” Santarsiero said, referring to the Supreme Court’s decision to nix federal abortion access protections and a pro-Trump mob storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Like voters interviewed this week, the party committee chairman cited inflation and the economy as the top issues he hears about when talking to his constituents. But on the latter, he said, “It’s a concern about the economy that goes beyond inflation — they see some fundamental changes occurring that make them nervous: changes due to technology, with artificial intelligence, that could really upend the economy and be really transcendent.”
The Bucks County Republican Committee did not respond to multiple interview requests. But some proud GOP voters were willing to talk about the election, and worries about the economy cut both ways here.
“Everything,” contractor Bill replied when asked for specific objectionable things the sitting president and vice president have done. “Just everything they’ve done in the office. Prices are high, the economy is shit, and the border — that right there is enough reason that she shouldn’t get four more years. Just look at how she’s run the country.”
Paul Dean was heading into a supermarket on Monday afternoon about 20 miles to the south of Newtown when he offered his own pithy assessment of the Biden-Harris administration.
A self-described “Republican my whole life,” Dean also replied “everything” when asked for specifics. “You’ve got the border, which is wide-open, and all the taxes,” he said. Notably, like Bill, Dean said that “all my friends are Republicans,” but “we don’t talk politics — it’s not worth it.”
Both men said there have been times they wished Trump had been less brash or opted to stay on policy topics rather than veer off into his often-offensive diatribes. Still, they said there’s no way they could ever vote for Harris.
‘Pray for our nation’
The feeling, however, was mutual a few moments later at a nearby coffee shop. “I’m sure as hell not voting for Trump,” Juliana, a Harris supporter, said bluntly,
“He’s only for the rich people. Harris is for us,” she said beneath a well-coiffed shock of curly hair. “And Harris is a woman. We need a change, and we need a woman as president.” Juliana also said she typically avoids all political topics with her friends, except one close pal. “I tried to convince her, but she still voted for Trump,” she said, shaking her head.
A number of interviews over two days around the county turned up an even split of self-identifying Harris and Trump supporters — and a sizable sample of rather grumpy folks who, in both lightly polite and borderline rude ways, let a reporter know they did not wish to be interviewed. As Santarsiero put it, “we’re not all that ethnically diverse, but there is a split in terms of socioeconomic and political views.”
Recent comments by Trump supporters during his closing-arguments rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden could boost Harris in Bucks County and across Pennsylvania among Latino and minority voters, Santarsiero said.
Dressed in medical scrubs as she pushed her shopping cart out of the supermarket Monday, a young Black woman who called herself Neff said she was supporting the vice president.
“All in all, it’s about morality for me,” she said. “Harris is for something that’s wholesome and good. That’s what we need right now.”
Someone who planted a sign along idyllic Woodbourne Road outside Newtown seemed to agree. “Pray for our nation,” it said amid a sea of bright foliage and a row of Trump signs about 20 yards away and Harris signs across the road.
About 200 yards up Woodbourne were two more campaign signs, planted side by side, that poetically captured the vibe in this divided area as they swayed ever so slightly in the cool morning breeze.
On the right, one declared in all capital letters: “Trump-Vance: Make America Great Again!”
On the left, the other featured a red circle with a line crossing out a phrase Democrats long have used as a dig at Trump: “Putin’s puppet.”
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