… In broad strokes, Trump and Clinton supporters are seldom near each other in much of the country. The Republican dominates rural, white America; the Democrat overwhelmingly wins the cities with their higher minority populations. But in this slice of Pennsylvania north and west of Philadelphia, where the suburbs meet the exurbs, the two sides collide. …
“Trump has to cut away the Democratic margins in suburban counties where Democrats have had a field day in past elections, which is why they win the state,” said G. Terry Madonna, who directed the Franklin & Marshall College poll. “The reason it’s tricky is that he’s got to appeal to men on trade.” he said, “These are not the same interests as in the southeastern part of the state, in suburban Pennsylvania.”
Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg, who has surveyed extensively in Pennsylvania this year, said the changing economy of the state has helped Clinton. Voters working in healthcare or education—two of the big and, relatively, newer employers in southeastern Pennsylvania—“don’t have the same economic woes” that have led manufacturing workers to “feel embattled and left behind,” she said. CONT.
Cathleen Decker, Los Angeles Times