The Blue-Collar Vote Could Be The Key To Winning Pennsylvania
By: KDKA-TV News Staff
ERIE, Pa. (KDKA/CBS News) - One of the most hotly contested states in the 2020 election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden is right here at home - Pennsylvania.
In 2016, Mr. Trump turned Pennsylvania red for the first time since the 1980s, upsetting his Democratic challenger, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
However, Mr. Trump's victory in the 2016 election was anything but decisive, winning by less than 1%.
In 2020, winning Pennsylvania could come down to the blue-collar and union vote.
Over the past month, both Biden and Trump have made visits to Pennsylvania, both themselves and their campaign surrogates.
CBS This Morning took a trip to Erie to visit and to speak with union workers about their thoughts on Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden in the upcoming election.
"I voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris," said Luke Wanchock, a welder and union worker at Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex in Erie. "They're pro-labor. I've never watched a Trump commercial and seen him mention anything about union labor."
Wanchock went on to say that he doesn't trust President Trump and that his policies haven't helped blue-collar workers, just the CEOs that run the companies.
"My livelihood is working with my hands," he told CBS This Morning. "I feel like he's giving more opportunity to the billionaires to make more off the working class."
However, not everyone agrees with the sentiment expressed by Wanchock. Many people in Pennsylvania found the appeal in Mr. Trump's businessman appearance.
"Trump resonates with me because, you know, look at all the businesses and the everything he built," Tara Heffern said, a small business owner in Meadville, Pennsylvania.
You can read the whole story and watch CBS This Morning host Tony Dokoupil's "At America's Crossroads" series on the CBS News website.