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WASHINGTON – The most important indicator of how people will vote is how much education they have. Voters who attended college are more likely to support Democrats, while voters without degrees generally support Republicans.
So when the Associated Press looked for places to explore this topic, we focused our attention on Center County, Pennsylvania. The area is home to Pennsylvania State University, making it a classic blue dot in a red area.
But the county is attracting more people with college degrees, and small towns in the area are going from red to purple and purple to blue. Nothing is certain in this turbulent election year, but the changes could help Kamala Harris combat Donald Trump’s margins in more rural areas. That’s what we found in Center County.
Center County, in the middle of Pennsylvania, has 160,000 residents, and has been a traditional swing area for years. But this has changed, with Democratic presidential candidates consistently winning in recent elections and Democrats maintaining control of the Board of County Commissioners.
This change is reflected in education statistics. A decade ago, 39.4% of residents had a four-year college degree or more. Last year it was up to 47.6%. County leaders are pushing to diversify the economy beyond Penn State, focusing on developments such as new attractions such as the Iron Man Triathlon and expanded healthcare facilities.
Mark Higgins, chairman of the Center County Board of Commissioners, said the area’s growth has been driven by “boomerangs.” This means that people who grew up or went to school in the county are moving back to raise their families.
Cost of living is an important factor. People are moving from big cities to State College because it is more affordable, and others are moving from State College to nearby cities because it is even cheaper. The result is that Blue Dot is expanding in the county.
“You’re seeing an expansion of the university community and the economy,” said Ezra Nance, the Democratic mayor of State College. “It touches all parts of the county.”
Penn State is surrounded by a series of small towns that have long had conservative reputations. However, this is slowly changing.
Voters in Bellefonte, a town of 6,000 residents, supported Trump in 2016, but supported Joe Biden in 2020. Once a struggling small town, it has seen a wave of investment and new arrivals that have brought more liberal politics.
However the change is not everywhere. Phillipsburg, with fewer than 3,000 residents, hasn’t seen that renaissance yet. The decline in coal mining has decimated the city of jobs, and voters there chose Trump over Biden in 2020. “It’s a lovely little town. It just needs help,” said Brittany Takeli, 31, who runs her own barber shop.
Democrats believe they can run up the score in Center County. His plans include wooing the left-leaning student population, which is vast but sometimes turns out to be unresponsive during elections. An aggressive publicity campaign is also going on in the area. “There could be thousands more votes in Center County than in 2020 or 2016,” said Abby Carr, executive director of the county’s Democratic Party.
Republicans are not decimating the campus population, and they have held events to energize right-wing students. Kush Desai, Pennsylvania spokesman for the Trump campaign, said they are doing outreach at college football tailgates and focusing on winning votes from young people who are disenchanted with progressive culture. “A lot of the people who are rubbing elbows are turning away and coming toward us,” he said.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
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