Politics of Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania, like neighboring New Jersey, has swung from being a Republican-leaning state during much of the 20th century to a more competitive state in national presidential elections. Pennsylvania has backed the Democratic presidential candidate in every election since 1992 up until 2016, when it supported Republican candidate Donald Trump. In 2008, Barack Obama won almost all of the Philadelphia suburbs. Statewide, John McCain won almost three times as many counties (48) as Obama (19), but Obama won the most populous counties and therefore won the popular vote for the state, carrying its 21 electoral votes.

Philadelphia is the Democratic stronghold of the state, often delivering huge margins for the Democrats in statewide elections. Other urban areas, such as Pittsburgh, lean Democratic as well. Like most states, Pennsylvania's rural areas tend to be more conservative and support Republicans. The resulting political map of Pennsylvania is therefore a red "T" in the center of the state with the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas a strong blue. In more recent years, the traditionally Democratic-voting areas in southwestern Pennsylvania have become much more Republican (especially after 2004), similar to other coal country areas in West Virginia and Kentucky. By 2016, counties that once voted for John Kerry in 2004 in the Pittsburgh area supported Donald Trump by more than 60%. The true swing areas of the state are the suburbs of the large cities, notably Philadelphia, which change year to year. The reason for this is the relatively moderate social and fiscal positions held by the citizens of the suburbs.

It has been said that the ideal Pennsylvania candidate is a gun-supporting, pro-life, dynastic Democrat, similar to current senator Bob Casey. Pennsylvania’s former Senator, Arlen Specter, announced in April 2009 that he was switching his party affiliation from Republican to Democratic, citing the Republicans shift to the right since he was elected in 1980, though others suspected he switched because he would face a tough Republican primary election in 2010. As it turns out, he ended up losing the Democratic primary to Representative Joe Sestak. Congressman Sestak narrowly lost the general election to Pat Toomey in November 2010 returning the Senate seat to Republicans.

...
Wikipedia