The steel mill where Patti Stroud’s husband worked for 26 years shut down a few weeks before Election Day in 2016. Though she is a registered Democrat, Ms. Stroud had long since drifted away from the party over its liberal social policies. So she voted for Donald J. Trump, hoping he would shake up Washington and bring back steel, the way he promised. …
“I thought we needed a big change, and boy, did we get it,” she said ruefully outside an I.G.A. market recently. President Trump “put his foot in his mouth one too many times,” she said. …
Most of the country will have to wait until November to have another say in a federal election, but Ms. Stroud and her neighbors in southwest Pennsylvania will get their chance much sooner, in a special election March 13 to fill a vacant congressional seat. And how they feel about Mr. Trump now may make a big difference in the race. CONT.
Trip Gabriel, New York Times