Donald Trump’s hard-fought win in Pennsylvania was key to his apparent victory Tuesday over Kamala Harris in the presidential race.
Trump defeated Harris in Pennsylvania, 51% to 48.1%, with about 95% of the vote counted, The Associated Press reported.
Fox News first called Pennsylvania for Trump at 1:22 a.m. Wednesday. Decision Desk HQ called it at 1:21 a.m.
This put him at 267 electoral votes, three away from the 270 votes needed. Together with the red state of Alaska, with its three electoral votes, Pennsylvania put Trump over the top.
At 1:50 a.m., Fox News called Wisconsin for Trump, bringing his total to 277 electoral votes.
Several factors may have played into Trump’s win in the ultimate battleground state of Pennsylvania. One unexpected factor was the Amish vote.
Amish residents of Pennsylvania registered to vote in record numbers, the New York Post reported. This particular conservative faith community rallied based in part on the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s raid on Amos Miller’s farm in January, according to Lancaster Farming.
Like most Trump voters, Stan Navola, a Brighton Township resident, said he voted for the former president because of the economy.
“Trump I trust more on the issues,” Navola told The Daily Signal last week after casting his ballot early. “The economy is the No. 1 issue. I don’t think Harris is qualified for the job.”
Several other Pennsylvania voters who spoke to The Daily Signal last week said they backed Trump primarily because of the economy—pointing to the Biden-Harris administration’s record on inflation, taxes, and spending.
“The economy is a train wreck and crime is high. I’ve had to fire people just to have enough money in the budget to hire additional security,” Pittsburgh resident David Nelle told The Daily Signal. “We can’t have a good economy without restoring safety.”
In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden beat Trump by 50% to 48.8% of the vote in Pennsylvania. In 2016, Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton 48.2% to 47.5%, the first Republican presidential candidate to win the Keystone State since George H.W. Bush in 1988.
Nancy Roderick, 89, of Pittsburgh, said she considered the stakes to be high.
“I think if we don’t win this time, it’s all over,” Roderick, a resident of the North Hills suburbs of Pittsburgh, told The Daily Signal.
Susan Nightingale, 81, of Pittsburgh, said her biggest motivation was the Biden-Harris administration’s poor performance.
“I think Pennsylvanians can overall see what is going on now needs to stop,” Nightingale told The Daily Signal. “They didn’t finish the border fence. It’s a shame they are just letting that fence material lie there [as] waste.”
Charles Schrankel of Ross Township said he isn’t usually strictly partisan.
“I voted the straight Republican ticket, and I don’t always vote straight party,” Shrankel told The Daily Signal outside the polling station in Wexford, Pennsylvania.
Wexford resident Mike Quigley said he looked at both the economy and the border.
“Trump and all the Republicans,” Quigley told The Daily Signal about who he voted for. “The border, the economy; I liked the way it was four years ago.”
