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PITTSBURGH – Joe Biden joined the race in the presidential election of 2020 last week stating that the upcoming elections would be "a battle for the soul of this country".
But his decision to make the first leg of the campaign Tuesday in a hall of the Teamsters of Western Pennsylvania shows that he really understands the heart.
Although 76-year-old Biden spent 36 years in the Senate representing Delaware, he spent his childhood in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and for most of his political career he attributed to his northern roots -At Pennsylvania's personality and work ethic. Third senator from Pennsylvania.
His affinity for the state and the people who live there could be the key to the presidency.
"If you want to win the White House, you have to win Pennsylvania as a Democrat," said Rich Fitzgerald, managing director and Democrat at the highest rank of Allegheny County. "And to win Pennsylvania, you have to go to Western Pennsylvania. And you have to do better than in 2016 – we lost some of our suburbs and counties of 40, 50, 60 points. "
In 2016 Hillary Clinton was a huge success in Philadelphia and surrounding suburban counties, but that was not enough. Why? Because the Western Rural Counties and Rust Belt closer to Pittsburgh, as well as the counties that culturally reflected them, like Luzerne and Northampton, outperformed for Donald Trump, offering a Republican a win in the Keystone State for the first time in three decades.
This moment has shifted political power in this more densely populated eastern state to the more motivated and expansive West.
That's why Biden coming to Pittsburgh and making western Pennsylvania his starting point is so smart, Fitzgerald said.
"This is the perfect place to start your run and talk about economic issues, health care, pensions and investments in the manufacturing sector and infrastructure – key issues that are important to us here in the world. western Pennsylvania and the Midwest, "he said.
At the same time, the Philadelphia Inquirer said Biden was looking at the City of Brotherly Love for its campaign headquarters. Although Hillary Clinton shares Biden's roots in northeastern Pennsylvania, she chose to establish her field headquarters in Brooklyn.
Ralph Sicuro, who heads the firefighters union in Pittsburgh, said many of his members and their families had not developed a good relationship with Clinton because of missed opportunities of this type.
"She did not energize our members because I did not think she had any relationship with them," Sicuro said.
Local Democrats in Pennsylvania have done well here in the last two years after Trump. Those who have won all states, such as Senator Bob Casey and Governor Tom Wolf, have done so by running on local issues such as infrastructure, health care and job creation. Same thing at the local level where Conor Lamb in Congress and Pam Iovino in the Senate were elected moderate in the problem solving campaigning in the big districts of Trump.
There has been no call for arms for third-trimester abortions, no New Green Deal support likely to cripple the growing shale industry, no rallying cry for dismissal and no commitment to Medicare favor or a free college for all.
"These millennia may come to believe that Biden is not good for the news."
Jeff Brauer, a professor of political science at Keystone College, said the former vice president's visit to Pittsburgh was a sign that he was the only Democrat able to beat and beat Trump in Pennsylvania.
"Biden's concern will be whether or not he can successfully cross a crowded Democratic primary," Brauer said of a feat that Biden had attempted twice before, but to no avail.
"This time, he will face what he calls himself the" new left "- Democratic primary voters who have a progressive ideological decisive test for the candidates. While Biden enjoys great popularity within the Democratic Party, his four-decade electoral record could come back to haunt him – especially with the millennial generation examining its past on issues such as academic integration. , the plight of Clarence Thomas / Anita Hill, the crime bill and the war in Iraq, "Brauer said.
"These millennia could come to believe that Biden is not right for the present time," he said, adding that "if they managed to push the party too far to the left for a Biden candidacy, Blue collar Pennsylvanian and Midwest may be lost to Republicans for decades. "
Sicuro knows that there will be forces within the party that will try to destroy Biden and this is of great concern to him.
"I am more than worried. I am very scared. My union members. . . will be disgusted with this type of behavior towards Biden. Especially for a man whom the great majority of members of the working class family hold in high esteem. "
A recent poll conducted by Democrats at Monmouth University revealed that Biden far surpassed the 19 other personalities in his party – 27 percent of Democrats and Democrats supporting him.
But it is to be feared that the voters perceive Biden negatively, first on his identity as a white man, and then on the allegations that he improperly touched a number of women.
Jackie Mikus, 74, from Presto, Pennsylvania, said she had nothing like that.
"I vote for the best candidate, not for identity, and this has been exaggerated," said the Democrat who has been plunged into party activism all his life.
Mikus has summed up his support for Biden – and this is a sentiment shared by various Democrats in western Pennsylvania who are yearning for victory in 2020.
"He has experience, he was an integral part of the Obama White House, he has a presidential leadership, he is right to work and he can win the west of Pennsylvania," he said. Mikus said. "Win here and you are the next president. It's so simple. "
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