Philly is Key to Trump's Pennsylvania Strategy
... Too bad the city's Democrats don't see that.
From The Philadelphia Citizen | @thephilacitizen
We already know that Pennsylvania is key to President Trump’s re-election chances in 2020, being just as important now as it was in 2016. What else explains the constant rally runs through Trump Valley?
But what we seem to be missing is how much Republicans view Philly as central to that effort, a strategic reality Philadelphia itself seems woefully unprepared for.
It’s not that the President expects to win Philly, with its overwhelming Democratic advantage; he doesn’t need to. In 2016, Trump got around 50,000 more votes in Pennsylvania than Hillary Clinton — a reflection in part of poorer turnout in Philadelphia than in past elections.
That is the story around America: A Pew research center study found that 19 percent of the registered black voters — and 25 percent of Hispanic voters — who didn’t cast a ballot in 2016 said they disliked the candidates or their campaign issues; in both cases that was 16 percent more than in 2012.
hese are the voters Ibram X. Kendi dubbed “the other swing voters”—those who either vote Democrat or stay home — in a recent Atlantic magazine article that he based largely in Philly. It explains why Philly has, unwittingly, become ground zero for Trump’s battle for the premier battleground state.
Several key issues, including schools, crime and energy, will be twisted, contorted and leveraged in the process, all of them currently presenting major challenges or perplexing city leaders.
Philly’s failure to address, respond to or effectively message on these problems will only help President Trump win the Keystone State yet again in 2020.