By Gary Fields | associated Press
Bethlehem, PA. – Bus block from closed Bethleham Steel Plant, Hispanic center Leh Valley was stirring with the score of big people who ate lunch recently. Below, out of sight, a constant stream of visitors was shopping in its mass food pantry.
In the last seven months, the number of visitor for the pantry has increased more than one third. The Center’s Executive Director, Raymond Santiago, see that in the last few years as a clear indication of something he felt: many people in the Latin community of the region have been struggling to meet their basic needs.
Northampton County, including Bethlehem, is a traditional Belveder for Pennsylvania, one of the most important President’s swing states, and is an important part of the Latino alliance that the President who is trying to rebuild biden who is trying to rebuild biden because he works on his campaign for a second term. In doing so, Democrats may have challenges to sell an important part of their reunion strategy.
One of the messages he has given in previous visits in Pennsylvania is that former President Donald Trump is a threat to American democracy for GOP enrollment. Biden is hoping that the message activates the same voters four years ago, when in 2016, after supporting Trump by a thin margin, Northampton County Flipped narrowly.
Based on their interaction with visitors at the Hispanic center, Santiago is not so sure. It is a shortage of groceries and affordable housing which dominates the conversation there.
“I think many people are already immune for that message, it would not be clean as this election as was done in 2020,” he said. “If he keeps moving that message forward, it can remove voters.”
Biden portrayed Trump as a serious threat to the US for his initial campaign program for 2024 and the general election can be “all about” whether democracy can survive. It was a message that he gave before the 2022 mid -star election at the Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the founding documents of the country were made. Biden warned that Trump and his followers threatened the “very foundation of our Republic”.
Biden has continued the subject during the initial primary session, it is necessary to tell the second term winning supporters to maintain the democratic traditions of the country.
During several days, the Associated Press interviewed a cross section of voters at Northampton County, to ask if the biden’s message was echoing around the fate of Democracy. These voters represented some parts of the alliance, Biden would need to win Pennsylvania again – black voters, Latino, independent and moderate from both sides.
His overlapping response: The President’s warning that another Trump Presidency will reduce constitutional norms and destroy democratic institutions, it is not, alone, inspired them and will exclude them to vote.
Like people in the rest of the country, most of them would prefer to avoid rematch of the 2020 competition, and many suggested that they would seriously give a serious third -party candidate a strong message and a chance to win.
74 -year -old Evelyn Firmin, who regularly visit the Leh Hispanic center, lives in County for two years after spending most of his lives in New Jersey. His opinion about Trump has been decided from January 6, 2021, when supporters of the former President gave the Congress a violent dialect to prevent the Congress from certifying the victory. But she does not think that the reminder of that day would be sufficient to convince voters in November.
Coming from the Republic of Dominican, for the parents of the parents, her concerns are spending border security and abroad.
“Instead of sending it abroad, I think we should use it for our people,” he said.
As a divorced mother, who supported her son because she did her work through school to become a lawyer, she also does not support Biden’s effort to forgive the student loan: “If I was able to do so, I think they need them.”
Kurt Balch, 44, worked in the health care industry and is now home -living father. He was delaying a two -hour school with his 5 -year -old daughter in his home in the more rural part of the county, with his 5 -year -old daughter. He registered the Republican so that he could vote in primary, but describes himself as more liberal.
Balch stated that the message by both sides is “very toxic” when they warns that the second “is a danger or threat to the basic principles of the country.”
He supported Trump in the last two elections, but is open to consider other candidates this year, especially if he feels an attractive third-party or independent candidate. Balch believes that strict warnings about a potentially second trump word are overblogged. Balch notes that even during the Kovid -19 epidemic, Trump allows the states to decide for themselves how to handle it.
“I understand the rhetoric,” Oh, he is going to be a fascist dictator, “Balch said. “I don’t think this is a message that people are getting in elections. I don’t think people are thinking legally that they need to be afraid of Donald Trump.”
Christian Miller was a lifelong democrat, but in 2022, with the political gridlock, he became an independent of disappointment and a sensible as he grew up, as he grew up, he was growing more conservative.
He said that he can consider switching to the Republican party one day, but as long as Trump is leading it, not. It is not out of any concern that Trump will become a dictator if he wins a second term.
The 53 -year -old bank executive who lives in Nazreth, “I don’t know that I am as scared as it is being made from both sides in the media.” “I think the institutions are safe and strong enough to face challenges.”
Miller cited dozens of unsuccessful court challenges by Trump and his colleagues seeking the results of the 2020 President’s results, which were examples of firm -having institutions.
Surveys indicate concern about the situation of democracy, but it is not clear how it will be translated into the November election. A spokesperson for the Biden campaign said that democracy is central for message campaign, but it is not only one whose campaign will use to reach voters. Protecting the rights of abortion and fighting for high wages will be one of the issues required for the President’s pitch.
Northampton County, especially Bethleham, is gradually emerging from the economic shock that occurred after the collapse of the local steel industry. The plant produced steel which built the Golden Gate Bridge during the Great Depression and became the largest shipbuilder in the country, during World War II, a decade later.
The blast furnace, which was silent about 30 years ago, is still visible for miles because they sit with the Leh River. But Bethleham has been enjoying a revival in recent years as it has developed in a center for health care and technology companies. New shops, an art center, museum, performance art phase and a casino, with other developments, dating in the 18th century have added vibrancy to a picturesque city with historical structures.
Northampton is also a historical Belveder. As the county has gone to the presidential election, the state is a state, a professor of political science and Christopher Boric, director of the Institute of Public Opinion at the University of Muhalenberg in Altontown. Last time they were divided, in 1948, when County voted for Democrat Harry Truman, but the state went to Republican Thomas Davi.
“This is as a great benchmark county as you will ever find,” Borik said.
Biden carried the county narrowly in 2020, when Trump became narrowly strong in his victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
69 -year -old Anna Kodama is the type of voter, which is traditionally moved forward among the parties.
He grew up in a Republican house in Ohio but replaced the parties during college. He often vote in party lines since he went to Leh Valley in 1977 – until 2016 when Trump was scoring his first run for the presidency and he voted for a direct ticket for Democrats.
People are not listening to the messages of Biden about a dark future under Trump facing Kodama. Instead, she wants to speak more about what she is doing to improve the economy and make a strong relationship with Europe. He focused on a Biden trip at the beginning of a nearby city, Emos, earlier this year, where he stopped at local shops to discuss the importance of supporting small businesses.
She said that Biden starts getting better connected with people when she promotes a positive message, rather than a negative that she believes that she will not inspire people in the fall.
“This is where I find this compelling – see what we can do together,” said the artist and former teacher who was drinking coffee at Cafe the Lodge in Bethleham. “This message resonates with me and with those I know.”
For the 90 -year -old President Esther Lee of the local NAACP, the danger is not causing a lot of concern among those whom he contacts. She is already planning to vote, but not because she is afraid of another Trump Presidency.
“We already know who he is,” he said.
Black voters are going to get more than Biden, they believe that their campaign messages are not yet echoed. She asks whether the black community is a target audience in Northampton County: “I am not looking at the proof of this,” she said.
Lee said that the issue she hears the most in her circle is homeless: “This is the number 1,” she said, saying that resources are not enough to address the local problem. The companion said, he said, there is an affordable house.
He said, “With Biden’s campaign, he needs to reach further,” with messaging, she said.
At the Leh Center, 69 -year -old Guillermo Lopez Junior recalls his deep ties and many members of his extended family who worked in Bethalham Steel. He worked at the plant for 27 years, following a father, who worked there till 36.
He is now on the board of directors of the center and a local leader in the Latin community. A Democrat who said that he is independent is planning to vote for Biden because how he thought that Trump’s rhetoric began with the announcement of the campaign in 2015, the target of Latino and other minorities.
“It just tells me that there is a lot of misguided hatred towards people like me,” he said.
But Lopez feels that fear and Trump Imiration The messages of American democracy are essentially meaningless to many working class voters. His concern, he said, is looking for stable work with good salary.
“I really feel that the vote harms,” he said about the warning of democracy. The average person who simply keeps his nose in grindstone and goes to work, I don’t think it inspires them. I think it scares them and makes them. “
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