Voters in the key swing state of Pennsylvania made their pick for president while holding negative views about the country’s direction, according to an expansive AP survey of the American electorate.
The race between President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden concluded Tuesday in a deeply divided nation struggling with a once-in-a-century pandemic and a severe economic downturn. AP VoteCast found that nearly 4 in 10 Pennsylvania voters said the U.S. is on the right track and 6 in 10 of voters said it is headed in the wrong direction.
Here’s a snapshot of who voted and what matters to them, based on preliminary results from AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of about 133,000 voters and nonvoters - including 4,134 voters and 872 nonvoters in Pennsylvania — conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.
TRUMP VS BIDEN
Trump is hoping to repeat his 2016 Keystone State victory when he won enough supporters in rural areas to overcome Democratic strength in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and their suburbs. Trump won the state’s 20 electoral votes last time by just 1%.
The same pattern from that election is playing out in this one with Biden leading among both voters in cities and suburban while voters in small towns and rural areas were more likely to back Trump.
Biden had an advantage over Trump among voters under 45. Trump had an edge among older voters.
“People my age, they’re excited to vote, excited to vote for change and hopefully there will be a change,” said first-time voter William Daniels, 21, of Philadelphia, who voted for Biden partly because he is hoping for better treatment of Black Americans. “We’re supposed to be the United States. We’re supposed to be united.”
Black voters were more likely to favor Biden over Trump. Trump was preferred over Biden among white voters.
Biden had an advantage over Trump among college-educated voters while voters without a college degree leaned toward Trump.
FACING THE PANDEMIC
The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 230,000 Americans, and deaths are rising again in Pennsylvania after a surge earlier this year. More than 8,800 Pennsylvanians have died from the virus.
Overall, about 2 in 10 Pennsylvania voters said the virus in the U.S. is completely or mostly under control, and 3 in 10 said it’s somewhat under control. About half of voters think the coronavirus is not at all under control in this country.
Biden told supporters on one of his campaign visits to Pennsylvania that Trump is the “worst possible person” to lead the nation during an outbreak. He has called the president reckless for not listening to federal science experts and said he would work with governors on requiring everyone to wear facemasks.
Four in 10 voters in the state said the coronavirus was the most important issue facing the country today.
Abby Leafe, a market researcher from Newtown, Pennsylvania, said the coronavirus is a big issue for her this year with her two children attending school just two days a week.
“There’s no parent in the county that hasn’t been affected by the way the coronavirus is being handled,” said Leafe, a 46-year-old Biden supporter. “Living in Pennsylvania, we have such a tremendous responsibility. Anything you read about the election, it’s all going to come down to Pennsylvania.”
The coronavirus is also a top issue for Priti Patel, 58, of Downingtown.
“The whole country I think right now needs a change, basically, more stability,” said Patel, also a Biden supporter.
Trump said many more people would have died of the coronavirus without his ban on travel from China to the U.S. earlier this year. He has called for states to open their economies.
ON THE ISSUES
Voters also considered the economy a major issue, with about 3 in 10 saying it ranked at the top. Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate is 8.1%, half the state’s four-decade record high of 16% recorded earlier this year but higher than the national rate.
Nearly 1 in 10 named health care, nearly 1 in 10 named racism and less than 1 in 10 named law enforcement.
Marjorie Mulvey said she voted for Trump because she admires everything he has done for the country and the stand that Republicans have taken against abortion.
“We’ve been praying a lot,” said the 91-year-old from Harmony, Pennsylvania. “We’ve been committing it to the Lord. God is the one that puts our leaders up or down.”
NATIONAL ECONOMY
Voters were more negative than positive in their assessments of the nation’s economy. Overall, 4 in 10 described economic conditions in the U.S. as excellent or good, and nearly 6 in 10 called them not so good or poor.
Trump has seized upon Biden’s comments in a presidential debate that the former vice president wants to phase out fossil fuels, a possible hit to natural gas companies in the state. Trump has also said that the damage to lives and livelihoods from strict lockdowns to stop the virus are more damaging than the virus itself.
STAYING AT HOME
Among registered voters who chose not to cast a ballot in Pennsylvania, about one quarter said that was because they don’t like the candidates, another quarter said they don’t like politics generally and about 1 in 10 said they don’t know enough about the candidates’ positions.
In Pennsylvania, 6 in 10 of nonvoters were younger than 45 and 7 in 10 did not have a college degree.
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AP VoteCast is a survey of the American electorate conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for Fox News, NPR, PBS NewsHour, Univision News, USA Today Network, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press. The survey of 4,134 voters in Pennsylvania was conducted for eight days, concluding as polls closed. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. The survey combines a random sample of registered voters drawn from the state voter file and self-identified registered voters selected from nonprobability online panels. The margin of sampling error for voters is estimated to be plus or minus 1.8 percentage points. Find more details about AP VoteCast’s methodology at https://ap.org/votecast.
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For AP’s complete coverage of the U.S. presidential elections: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2020
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