Posted on 11/12/2016 6:49:05 PM PST by goldstategop
Republican congressman Lou Barletta claimed victory long before Donald Trump did on 8 November. While the ballot counting for president would go on into the wee hours, by 10pm Barletta was on a small stage in a high-ceilinged restaurant in downtown Hazleton, Pennsylvania, thanking his supporters for re-electing him for a fourth term in his 11th district seat.
"I think we win by more each time," the 60-year-old said to raucous applause from the crowd of roughly 200.
Barletta's district is a long, club-shaped collection of nine counties in the conservative, northeastern part of Pennsylvania. It is these rural counties whose Republican votes for president often get cancelled out by the big, solidly Democratic cities to the south and west: Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The state has gone for every Democratic presidential candidate since 1992.
But on election night 2016, something different happened. For the first time in decades, the voters of rural and suburban Pennsylvania overwhelmed the city-dwellers and went red. Almost all the polls predicted the state was safely in Clinton's grasp. What happened in Pennsylvania on 8 November was a huge upset.
Luzerne County, where Hazleton is located, went for Barack Obama in 2012 by 52% - this year, Trump took the county with 58% of the vote.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Not this year. Bellwether Luzerne County went Red and with it, the state. Trump won the county with 58% of the vote. An overwhelming rural and small town PA turnout overcame the Democratic machine in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
And made Donald Trump the 45th President of the United States. All those years of wooing PA finally paid off a big dividend.
We all knew it was over when the Keystone State finally went Red late in the night.
Were there any Amish votes in these 4 counties.
The democrats turned their backs on the working class and whites.
And they, in turn, turned their backs on democrats.
PA expat bump
Tried to tell folks, tell em them all cycle.. .once Trump was the nominee, He was getting PA... he was taking the rust belt sans MN and IL... and most just went off on their fraud this, never that, fools gold....
Of course, most didn’t live up here, so they had no real clue what was going on on the ground...
Trump had this election won, as long as he turned FL... NC was never going blue... that was foolish daydreaming by dems.
Dems were arrogant, they knew FL, OH, IA and NC didn’t matter... even if Trump flipped.held them, they safely had 270.. it was beyond their comprehension to remotely contemplate that Trump would get PA, or MI or WI.... let alone all three.. their arrogant self absorbed brains could not believe any of those states would fall... Hell even if he picked of NH as well they were still fine.... They just couldn’t remotely believe Trump could take one of these states.
He took them all, and it was obvious he was gunning for the upper mid west, and blindingly obvious he was going to likely win at least one of them... in the end he picked off all three.
Was glad when Trump held a rally in Amish country. Bad wet weather too.
In October, I had to drive from Western New York to North Carolina for my niece’s wedding. I went directly through the middle of the Pennsylvania. Most was expressway, but we were dumped onto local streets here and there. I counted lawn signs in PA. 36 Trump. 1 Hillary. 1 Gary Johnson. (If they had more than one sign in their yard, I counted it as just one). It seemed to me that rural PA was hard for Trump. I discussed this with my brother at the wedding (who lives in PA). He insisted PA would go Hillary. I just had a sense otherwise.
I’m here in NE PA and acquainted Lou Barletta. I travel all through Monroe, Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties and up until the Saturday before the election I had only seen 2 or 3 Hillary yard signs and zero signs for McGinty.
On the Saturday before the election I noticed several Hillary signs in Jim Thorpe Boro. That was it basically.
On another note, I’m very please that Lou is on Trumps transition team. I doubt there is anyone more capable to direct Trump on the problem with illegals and how to stop it than the former mayor of Hazleton.
Yep, the Amish Pac also helped:
I live in Northampton County, and work in Monroe County. Just like you, I saw maybe half a dozen Hillary signs at most, and plenty of Trump signs all over the place. I was happy to see a few Hillary for Prison signs too. :)
Depending on how you came south, on 11/15 or I81 or I83 or US 322, you’ll have hit quite a few small towns.
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I hadn’t heard that. I am glad that trump is using him. What a patriot and great for hazleton.
My county Lehigh valley where I grew up (Whitehall) went for Hillary. Ugh!!!!! It used to be deep red.
Yes, I lived in Luzerne county for over a decade, and there are some in the rural areas of that county. I live an hour away from there now in a more rural county and have a good sized Amish community here. I volunteered to drive Amish to the polls too, near Towanda, PA.
That general area has been flooded with illegals.
I was born in Hazleton and still have friends there; I’m so proud of them!
I prayed that the patriots in most of PA outnumbered the lyen, cheaten, stealen, bought voters in philly and pburgh.
WE DID AND DONALD JOHN TRUMP IS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
When I go to Mass today I WILL wear my MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, cap and watch as all of the hildabutchbitch "Catholics" are all teary eyed, those bastards.
I'll say a prayer for them, but I hope they know that abortion means murder, and the American people dodged a traitor as President.
A pro-Trump coal miner stood all day on election day at a busy intersection in the South Hills suburb of Pittsburgh, Rt. 88 and South Park Rd in Bethel Park PA, in his coal miner work uniform and coal miner hat, holding a big Trump sign and a Vote Coal message. These people are desperate to preserve their jobs.
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