Abstract
Pennsylvania, a perennial battleground state, voted for every Democratic presidential candidate from 1992 to 2012. Then came Donald Trump. After Trump upended two decades of Democratic dominance in the keystone state—defeating Clinton by 0.7%—parties, candidates, and their constituencies assessed the dynamics that facilitated the Republican-Trump resurgence, considered strategies, and set their sights on mobilization for the 2018 midterms, gubernatorial and senatorial races, and then, 2020. With all eyes on assessing the election results and state of the parties in battleground Pennsylvania in the tumultuous 2020 pandemic presidential election, this chapter will review essential factors and takeaways from the Republican resurgence and Trump victory in 2016, briefly examine the context and key elections leading up to 2020, and then consider key demographic trends that facilitated Joe Biden’s triumph over Donald Trump.
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Yenerall, K.M. (2022). Pennsylvania: A New Bellwether?. In: Perry, L. (eds) The 2020 Presidential Election. Palgrave Studies in US Elections. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83872-0_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83872-0_3
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-83871-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-83872-0
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