Election 2024: Harris campaigns in Texas while Trump travels to Michigan

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“I swear I'm going to throw my phone through the TV the next political ad I see,” Gary told me as he perused the menu at a restaurant in Allentown, Pennsylvania, as everyone who lives here knows exactly what he is talking about.

Living in a swing state is a privilege, but with privilege comes responsibility, as they say, and in this case, a tsunami of TV and radio ads, signs and billboards everywhere, roads blocked by motorcades, and yes, even annoying ones Columnists from National outlets who point a pen to you and your thoughts.

It's exhausting. In fact, the owner of the restaurant, a fun eatery called Blended, was somewhere between laughing and crying when he received notification that former President Donald Trump would be appearing at the PPL Center just down the street on Tuesday, October 29th.

“Oh, it just shuts everything down,” Eric told me. But he resigned himself to the reality of running a business at the epicenter of presidential politics and simply went on with his evening.

In a sense, he is a symbol of this city, made famous by Billy Joel's ballad about its economic decline in the 1980s.

Eight years ago, Eric was living on the streets, addicted to crystal meth, just a few blocks away and yet metaphorically miles away from the successful small business owner he has become.

Even Allentown is no longer the dark and dirty town where they mined all the coal from the ground. In its place lies a clean, shiny city where the old stone buildings, monuments to industrial power, stand proud and beautiful.

That prosperity was ever-present as I traveled through Pennsylvania, and in this critical transition state, it's not economic fears but larger issues that drive most voters I speak with.

This is an excerpt from an article by David Marcus.