In 2012 Mitt Romney all but ignored Pennsylvania believing he couldn't win there. In 2016, Trump's trade message 'resonates' with Pennsylvania voters per former Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell-NY Times, 7/28/16

In 2012, "Mitt Romney all but ignored Pennsylvania in the expectation that it would vote Democratic."

7/28/16, "Donald Trump Invades Scranton, Hoping to Wrest Pennsylvania From Democrats," NY Times, Trip Gabriel

"He (Trump) is hoping to make deep inroads in a Democratic stronghold with an anti-free trade, America-first message, which across the Rust Belt has energized the blue-collar voters who represent his best prospect of taking up residence in the White House.... 

His larger promise to restore blue-collar jobs by tearing up the North American Free Trade Agreement and other trade deals drew cheers.  

“We haven’t gotten a new job in this city for the last 20 years,” said Fred Joseph, 66, retired sales manager at a cardboard plant, who was among those who heard Mr. Trump on Wednesday. “If he gets these renegotiations with these NAFTAs, we can start bringing back industries and make televisions, we can make refrigerators. I saw them leave. Why won’t they come back?”   

Mr. Trump’s visit came a day after a former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, Edward G. Rendell, said the Republican nominee's trade message "resonates" with the state's voters. 

“I think Trump has a very good chance here,” said Mike Fedorka, 60, a former Democratic City Council member in Dickson City, just north of Scranton. 

Unlike 2012, when President Obama and Mitt Romney all but ignored Pennsylvania in the expectation that it would vote Democratic, this year it is a hard-fought battleground, with the Clinton campaign and its allies building a robust field staff and saturating the television airwaves with ads....

To win the 20 electoral votes of Pennsylvania, among the richest of the swing states in the mid-Atlantic and upper Midwest, Mr. Trump must assemble the pieces of a complex puzzle. Democrats have won six straight victories in Pennsylvania in presidential elections....

“People who’ve lived here their entire lives think things aren’t as good as they used to be, so there’s a significant number of people Trump can tap into based on ‘make America great again,’ ” said Michael Allison, a political scientist at the University of Scranton."... 

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Added: From Institute for Energy Research:

"Northeastern Pennsylvania has the nation’s largest reserves of anthracite coal, a coal that burns cleanly with little soot."...In 2012, Pennsylvania was "the only state producing anthracite coal, which has the highest heat value among the coal types."

"Northeastern Pennsylvania has the nation's largest reserves of anthracite coal, a coal that burns cleanly with little soot."... (Most of the state's coal production consists of bituminous coal which is mined in the the western part of the state):

"Pennsylvania was the fourth largest coal-producing state in the nation in 2012, and the only state producing anthracite coal, which has the highest heat value among the coal types. Northeastern Pennsylvania has the nation’s largest reserves of anthracite coal, a coal that burns cleanly with little soot, used primarily as a domestic fuel in either hand-fired stoves or automatic stoker furnaces. While Pennsylvania supplies virtually all of the nation’s anthracite coal, most of the state’s coal production consists of bituminous coal mined in the western part of the state, where several of the nation’s largest underground coal mines are located....

In recent years, a rising proportion of Pennsylvania coal has been exported to other nations. The state is among the nation’s leaders in coal exports.... 

The Keystone State is experiencing record production for natural gas, largely due to a welcoming regulatory environment for hydraulic fracturing technologies that are unlocking vast reserves previously untouched in the Marcellus Shale. Meanwhile, the state’s coal industry has been suffering and the refining sector has felt the strain of federal regulations that are designed to cripple fossil energy producers. The Institute for Energy Research monitors closely the developments in this critical energy state, where unemployment and gasoline prices remain high compared to the rest of the country."...

7/27/16, Scranton, NY Times

Image, Trump rally in Scranton, 7/27/16, credit, Todd Heisler, NY Times




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