Staff Reports
In October, President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign released an ad targeting working-class families in Pennsylvania. The ad, titled “Never Left,” showcased childhood photos of a young Biden and aired in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Scranton markets as part of a hefty $25 million campaign. The ad proclaimed, “He grew up a middle-class kid in a middle-class town, and while Joe Biden’s traveled far and wide, Scranton, Pennsylvania, has never left him.”
It’s not looking good for Biden.
#2024election #DemocraticParty #JoeBiden #Pennsylvania #Politics #RepublicanParty #Voting https://t.co/34M0As5kbU
— Conservative Tribune (@conserv_tribune) December 29, 2023
Well, it seems like Biden’s nostalgic ad failed to hit the mark. State Department data, first reported by Newsweek, revealed that over 35,000 Pennsylvania voters registered as Democrats decided to switch their allegiance and join the Republican Party this year. On the flip side, only around 15,600 Republican voters switched to register as Democrats. To add insult to injury, nearly 21,000 Democrats and 19,000 Republicans now have no party affiliation.
Nathan Benefield, senior vice president of the Commonwealth Foundation, a Pennsylvania policy organization, pulled no punches in his assessment of Biden’s popularity in the battleground state. According to him, it’s all about “Bidenomics.” Benefield told Fox News, “Voters are saying they’re not happy with Bidenomics and the economy, and I think that’s reflected in the registration and some of the voting patterns.”
Despite the relentless effort by the Biden administration to tout Bidenomics as the bee’s knees, the American people aren’t buying it. I mean, can you blame them? A Pennsylvania swing voter described Bidenomics as “a jumbled mess.”
What’s more, the voter registration shift away from the Democratic Party spells trouble for Biden, especially since he only clinched Pennsylvania by a slim 80,000 votes in 2020 after Trump’s victory in 2016. Benefield believes that 2024 could also be a nail-biter. “Whether Trump and Biden are at the top of the ticket or not, I do think it’s going to be pretty much one of the closest states next year,” he opined.
It seems that Biden is learning the hard way that party loyalty has its limits, especially when the economy takes a hit. His claim that Pennsylvania “never left him” falls flat when faced with the reality of voters’ experiences. Many Pennsylvanians appear to have decided that Biden has left them, and their votes are likely to reflect it.
