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🗞️ Good Morning Pennsylvania. Find all the latest news on what’s happening in Keystone State politics with the PoliticsPA Playbook. We’ll deliver all the latest headlines in an easy-to-read format every weekday at 8 AM. And it’s free. Add your name to the list and subscribe now.

Top Story

1. How Trump Won Pennsylvania: Increased Turnout in Rural Counties, Subdued Democratic Vote

“Donald Trump nearly replicated his 2016 path to the White House, demolishing the so-called Blue Wall of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to become only the second president elected to a second nonconsecutive term.

“The Democrats have just lost touch with their working-class base, and they’ve done that in every way in terms of the policies that they’re pursuing, the language that they speak to the public with, and their personas,” Mercyhurst University political science professor Joe Morris said. “Pennsylvania is, at its heart, a blue-collar state where people get up and go to work for a living. And the Democrats have kind of lost sight of that.”” (Erie Times-News)

Elsewhere

Is This the End of the White Working-Class Democrat? “Harris and other Democrats also faced a deepening, newly worrisome perception problem: a widespread belief among working-class Americans that the Democratic Party does not fully grasp their struggles — and in some cases, disdains them outright.” (New York Times)

How Tech Affected ‘The Information Environment’ of the 2024 Election. “Advancements in AI technology, and the changing “information environment” undoubtedly influenced how campaigns operated and voters made decisions in the 2024 election, an elections and democracy expert said.” (Penn Capital-Star)

John Fetterman Says Butler Shooting, Elon Musk Led to Trump Win in PA. “Fetterman said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Trump was the strongest he had ever been when he ran in the third of his three presidential races in Pennsylvania. ” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Trump Made Big Gains Among Blue-Collar Workers. Is He Really on Their Side? “New administration will have to reconcile traditional GOP resistance to unions and workplace rules with ‘New Right’ advocacy for employees.” (Wall Street Journal)

State

2. A Look at the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate Race As the Recount Begins

“Now that we have entered the recount stage of Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate contest between Dave McCormick and Bob Casey, let’s take a look at the unofficial results around the Commonwealth.

McCormick won 55 of the state’s 67 counties with Casey holding a plurality in Allegheny, Bucks, Centre, Chester, Dauphin, Delaware, Erie, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Monroe, Montgomery, and Philadelphia.

Casey’s dozen still finds the three-term incumbent Democrat trailing by just under 24,000 votes on Friday afternoon but by only 0.43 percent, triggering the state’s mandatory recount law.” (PoliticsPA)

• Results (as of 6:45 AM): McCormick 48.84%, Casey 48.58% (17,774 votes)
• Al Schmidt Discusses PA Senate Race Recount. (This Week in Pennsylvania)

Elsewhere

New Court Fight Erupts Over Pennsylvania’s Ballot Dating Requirement Ahead of Key Recount. “At least three Pennsylvania counties are accepting and counting mail ballots from last week’s election that lack a proper date on the envelope, prompting a new legal clash in a long-running disagreement over how to handle these ballots.” (Votebeat)

Bob Casey Isn’t Conceding the U.S. Senate Race. But He’s Not Denying the Integrity of the Election Results, Either. “As Pennsylvania’s razor-thin U.S. Senate race heads to a recount, allies of President-elect Donald Trump have claimed Sen. Bob Casey is working to steal an election, drawing false parallels between Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and Casey’s decision not to concede in his reelection bid as votes are tabulated. But there’s a key difference between the two scenarios.” (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Pennsylvania Senate Race, Recount Sparks Litigation, Criticism. “The decision to recount the Pennsylvania Senate race is drawing criticism from across the political spectrum, prompting lawsuits and calls of bad sportsmanship.” (Washington Times)

Around The Commonwealth

3. From Student Loans to Reproductive Rights, How a New Trump Presidency Could Affect PA

“Deporting 230,000 unauthorized immigrants in Pennsylvania. Cutting health insurance subsidies, leaving as many as 32,000 additional Pennsylvanians unable to afford coverage. Expanding oil and gas drilling in Western Pennsylvania.

Keystone State residents may have been registering their anger at the high price of eggs as they voted to return Donald Trump to the White House.

After taking office in January, Trump will be in a position to offer proposals that will affect how much you will pay in federal taxes, whether you can write off some of your student loan debt, what your health insurance will cost, and possibly make it harder to get a medication abortion.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Elsewhere

PA Farm Industry Braces For Raids, Deportations Under Proposed Trump Policy. “In the early part of President-elect Donald Trump’s first term in office eight years ago, mushroom and fruit growers across Pennsylvania experienced disruptions from raids by federal authorities. Their primary target: undocumented immigrants. What is poised to unfold in the second Trump Administration promises to be far more disruptive.” (PennLive)

Philly Councilmember Leads Talk to Amend ‘Resign-To-Run’ Clause For Council. “City Council saw six members leave before the last term’s end to run for mayor in 2023. One that stayed introduced legislation Thursday to remove that requirement.” (Philadelphia Tribune)

Editorial

4. What’s On Your Mind

• Reality Check: Ed Gainey’s Budget Address From La La Land. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• It’s Time For the District Attorney to Investigate Concerns Over Ethics Violations In Dauphin County Government. (PennLive)
• What Masculinity Means in America. (Devi Lockwood)
• What Black America Learned From the Reelection of Donald Trump. (Solomon Jones) 
• How the Democratic Party Must Change to Win in 2028. (Bruce Ledewitz)
• How the Republican Should Change Washington. (Nathan Benefield)
• Democracy Dies In Daylight As Democrats Break the Law to Help Casey. (Kyle Sammin)
• The High Cost of Running For Office. (Tribune-Review)

1 Thing

5. Pennsylvania Cities Tumble in U.S. News’ List of Best Places to Retire

“After Pennsylvania cities swept the top five spots in U.S. News and World Report’s 2024 Best Places to Retire list, no towns from the Keystone State cracked the top 30 this year.

Harrisburg, Reading, Lancaster, Scranton and Allentown were named the top five places to retire on last year’s list, but towns more traditionally thought of as hotbeds for retirees topped the 2025 rankings. Naples, Florida, ranked first followed by Virginia Beach, Virginia. New York is third.

Pittsburgh is the highest-ranking city in Pennsylvania on this year’s list, coming in at No. 33 in the nation. That’s a considerable drop from No. 10 last year.” (Philadelphia Business Journal)

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