Trailblazers of Freedom: Five Pennsylvania counties to watch on election night

Pennsylvania will once again be the most watched state on election night as the commonwealth's 19 electoral votes will tip the election one way or the other.

Five counties — Bucks, Northampton, Erie, Center and Luzerne — out of 67 are likely to be the ones that will decide whether former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris wins the 2024 presidential election.

BUCKS COUNTY – COUNTY SEAT: DOYLESTOWN

Bucks County made national headlines last week after the RNC and Trump campaign launched legal action against county officials after slashing lines for “on-demand” voting before the posted closing time.

A judge ultimately allowed Bucks voters involved in the lawsuit to cast their early ballots by Friday. Bucks is also known as one of the large counties where voters typically split their votes.

A Pennsylvania welcome sign greets drivers on US-222 entering Peach Bottom, Pennsylvania from Maryland in 2022. (Charlie Creitz)

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and his late brother, Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, both Republicans, scored consistent but narrow victories in the county, while results at the state and gubernatorial levels are often mixed. Brian was re-elected in 2020, just as Biden won the county.

The county has also emerged as a GOP voter registration advantage this cycle, with the Philadelphia Inquirer reporting that Republicans have a majority of nearly 1,000 voters.

While Trump lost all of Philadelphia's once-Republican collar counties in 2016 — Delaware, Chester, Montgomery and Bucks — only the latter is in play this cycle.

NORTHAMPTON COUNTY – COUNTY SEAT: EASTON

Adjacent Bucks, Lehigh and Northampton counties unite geopolitically to form the important post-industrial Lehigh Valley region. The congressional seat currently held by Democrat Susan Wild is always hotly contested.

While Lehigh typically remains in Democratic hands due to Pennsylvania's third-largest city – Allentown – neighboring Northampton County surprised everyone when Trump took it over in 2016.

Scott Presler is traveling across Pennsylvania registering voters, trying to turn key counties red

The Moravian Star shines on the southern mountain above the Ofc. Philip J. Fahy Memorial Bridge in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. (Charles Creitz)

Northampton Republican Party Chairman Andrew Azan III said in a recent interview that he was very optimistic again this year and said there had recently been a “waiting list” for Trump yard signs.

ERIE COUNTY – COUNTY SEAT: ERIE

Far to the west, Erie sticks out like a sore thumb in the Great Lakes, and its electorate could put their collective thumb on the scale for both candidates.

Erie Republican Chairman Tom Eddy recently said Erie is “unique … in the fact that it is able to pick winners.” Trump won Erie County and the election in 2016, and Biden won in 2020 .

Eddy called the county “Little Pennsylvania” – because it includes within its borders a portion of every part of the state: an urban area, agricultural land and industry.

LUZERNE DISTRICT – DISTRICT SEAT: WILKES-BARRE

Meanwhile, in Luzerne County, dominated by Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton, Republicans shocked observers in September by winning a majority there.

The union-heavy county, which borders Biden's Lackawanna, went for Trump in 2016 and 2020 despite its Democratic leanings at the time.

“We all want to thank the Democrats and the Democratic platform because they are the ones who really inspired people to leave the party and become Republicans,” said TJ Fitzgerald, GOP chairman of Luzerne County’s 119th District.

Early Vote Action Chairman Scott Presler, who has been crisscrossing Pennsylvania to register Republican voters, previously said it was a major accomplishment ahead of what was expected to be a close election.

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A Harris Walz supporter arrives in Wilkes-Barre in a police vehicle with a campaign logo. (Charlie Creitz)

When Fox News Digital reported on Presler's work in red counties like Lancaster and Dauphin over a weekend, he also identified Bucks, Luzerne and Center as those most ripe for the Republican vote.

CENTER COUNTY – COUNTY SEAT: BELLEFONTE

Center County is the rare blue dot in the middle of northwest Pennsylvania's forestland. Much of the county reflects the Republicanism of the neighboring towns of Clinton, Huntingdon and Blair – but Penn State University's presence in State College skews it Democratic.

Of the approximately 110,000 voters there, 41.2% are Democrats and 40.3% are Republicans. But before the Nittany Lions defeated Kent State in September, Presler and his volunteers registered voters to advocate and met students who were fervently pro-Trump.

State Sen. Cris Dush, a Republican who represents Center and six other neighboring counties, said the prospect of flipping the blue enclave will be “actually very exciting.”

Dush said one of them – rural Clinton County – was solidly Democratic until the Trump era and recently went “more than 3-1 Republican.”

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Power supply (Gregory Fisher via Getty Images)

Center could have a chance at the red column this year, also because Generation Z is suddenly struggling with a difficult economic situation for young employees.

While Pennsylvania's industry faces regulatory hurdles and more, Dush noted, outsourcing has been most unfortunate among these young voters.

“The fact that they put such restrictions on the development of businesses in northern and western Pennsylvania: There's not a state in the United States that doesn't have a Steelers bar, and that's because working-class kids have one.” have.” become our best export. I want her back,” he said.