Written by Charlie Wolfson and Stephanie Strasburg, PublicSource
Molly Caterino served beers at the West Mifflin bar Village Idiot Tap Room one weekday afternoon in late July with a small crowd of regulars occupying stools. She said she’s worked at the bar, owned by a family member, for 20 years.
She’ll definitely be voting for Donald Trump in the November election, she said. Why? “The economy sucks. [Customers] are tighter with their money when things are more expensive.”
Less than a mile away, Andrese Wright was cutting hair at the salon she started eight years ago. One of few Black business owners in the borough, she said Trump’s 2016 election corresponded with a rise in racist behavior in her community, and she plans to vote for Kamala Harris this fall in hopes of bolstering abortion rights.
“I’m praying we get these rights back to get abortions,” she said, reacting to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade. (Abortion remains legal in some states, including Pennsylvania.)
The two voters live and work in the same 14-square-mile borough. West Mifflin was among a handful of Pittsburgh suburbs that were almost evenly divided in the 2020 election. It went 51% for Joe Biden, 48% for Trump.
Suburbs across the country, including in Southwestern Pennsylvania, swung to the left in 2020 and helped Biden unseat Trump. Where they go in 2024 could determine if Trump returns to power or if Harris keeps the White House in Democratic hands.
Suburbs are “key to Harris’ possibility of success” in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, said Chris Bonneau, a political science professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “Suburbs tend to have higher average income and education levels than rural or urban areas so those places are more likely to turn out to vote.”
Another Pittsburgh suburb, Shaler, offers signs of the division facing the country, and indications of the issues driving voters this year. Trump carried the township by about one tenth of one percentage point in 2020.
On one residential street, that mix was on display in early August. An oversized Trump banner dominated the lawn of one home, next to another with Biden-Harris signs.
In the Democratic home, 71-year-old James Gethen said, “I don’t want a dictator in this country,” referring to the possibility of Trump winning. His wife, Liane Gethen, said she is most worried about the fate of Medicare and Medicaid. “We use both,” she said.
The owners of the large Trump banner did not respond to multiple door-knocks and phone calls from PublicSource. A lawn sign proclaims Trump as “The law and order president.” A sign on the door suggests the homeowners are gun owners.
Swingy suburbs
As the number of true swing states and congressional districts dwindles nationally, Allegheny County had 25 municipalities where Biden and Trump were within five percentage points of each other in 2020. Shaler was the closest, with just 18 votes out of about 19,000 separating the two.
The 25 communities tend to be near or above the median income for the region and are spread out geographically, from Moon to Versailles to South Fayette.
SEE: These Pittsburgh suburbs were decided by less than 5 percentage points in 2020
What drives voters in one suburb could be drastically different from another, Bonneau said. “We talk about the suburbs like they’re monolithic but they really aren’t,” he said. “There’s a big difference between Pine and Richland even. That makes it difficult to make general statements.”
Bonneau said he expects both campaigns to focus on suburban areas, and that Democrats will likely deploy Gov. Josh Shapiro to campaign in them heavily, given his strong electoral performance in 2022.
“They’re looking at the slice of voters [that] are moveable,” he said, such as traditional Republican voters who are opposed to Trump.
That category includes James Gethen, of Shaler, who said he was a Republican in the past. “I’ve got one party to vote for now because I’m not going to vote for Trump.”
Some analysts view Pennsylvania as the most likely tipping point in the electoral college. The largest battleground state with 19 electoral college votes, Trump won it by less than 50,000 votes in 2016 and Biden by about 80,000 in 2020. The razor-thin margins and outsized national importance mean shifts in small suburbs could go a long way toward deciding who wins the White House.
Inflation persists
Numerous interviewees in Shaler and West Mifflin brought up inflation as a top issue. Inflation spiked to around 9% in 2022, raising prices faster than normal on consumer goods like groceries and gas. Inflation has since cooled to under 3%, a more normal level, but the price hikes are still felt.
“Food prices were down, gas prices were down” when Trump was president, said John Beharry of West Mifflin, who said he intends to vote for Trump to try to restore lower prices.
Emily DePalma, a 32-year-old Shaler resident who is still deciding who to vote for, said inflation is a top issue for her, particularly with housing and education costs growing.
“What are we going to do, if it’s even possible, to lessen the gap between wages and the cost of buying a house?” DePalma said.
She said she does not see a need for politicians to forgive student loan debt as Biden tried to do in 2022, but “the wages aren’t there to pay off the loans in any timeframe. They need to do something. Some people have more to pay [now] than they started out with.”
Josh Chuha, a 43-year-old of West Mifflin, said his 401(k) was “booming” when Trump was in office, which is one reason he intends to vote for him this year. “Gas was lower, food was lower,” Chuha added.
Abortion still weighs on voters
Voters in both West Mifflin and Shaler told PublicSource abortion access is near the top of their minds ahead of the November election.
Wright, the West Mifflin salon owner, said her gynecologist recently dropped her as a patient because the doctor had to spend more time working at an abortion clinic, citing a surge in patients from states that have restricted access since Roe was overturned.
A person getting an abortion “shouldn’t have to feel bad” about that decision, Wright said of the court’s rollback of the national right to the procedure. “What happens to the man who got me pregnant?” she asked, hypothetically. “Nothing.”
Wright said she is “praying” Harris would be able to re-establish abortion rights nationwide if elected. “Her word is her bond.”
Sue Keffer, a 67-year-old Shaler resident, who is not sure who she will vote for yet, said, “I don’t think they should take away women’s rights.”
Judy Canelos, 78, was walking her neighbor’s dog at a West Mifflin strip mall when she said abortion was the top issue for her in this election, overriding her concerns about the southern border.
“What angers me more than anything is the fact that … these boys from Capitol Hill are taking away a woman’s control of her own body,” Canelos said.
Nearby, sitting at the Village Idiot bar, Chuha said he is “pro-choice up to a point” and plans to vote for Trump, who he credited for leaving the matter “up to the states.”
Abortion proved to be a major factor in the 2022 midterms.
“That’s an issue that’s not going away,” Bonneau said. “Not only for women but for people with daughters and spouses. This is a fundamental issue. It’s definitely going to play a larger role than you would think.”
Border anxieties
Interviews in the two municipalities showed that in addition to pocketbook issues and abortion, the debate over immigration policy has broken through to voters far from the southern border.
“Biden opened up the borders and let all these people in,” said Beharry, who hoped that Trump would “close the borders when he gets in.”
Caterino, the bartender at the Village Idiot, said she isn’t personally affected by immigration, “but our country is. We can’t let people in and get food stamps and free housing” while people panhandle Downtown and in West Mifflin.
Wayne Frederick, a 59-year-old Marine Corps veteran of Shaler and DePalma’s partner, criticized Democrats for allowing “terrorists” to get into the country.
Fact-checkers have not found firm evidence that people on the FBI’s terrorist watch list are being allowed entry to the country.
“Donald Trump is the way to go,” Frederick said.
Some voters who were undecided or lean toward Democrats said they, too, have concerns about the border.
Canelos, who said she is sure to vote for Harris, said, “I hate to say it, but Republicans” seem a better choice to deal with the border.
“Where are we putting these people? And why can’t we go to their governments and say stop whatever you’re doing to people that’s making them leave?
“I still want the Democrats. The Republicans have a good point about the border, but my big thing is the abortion issue.”
Tension among neighbors
The Gethens said they have received “pushback” for their pro-Democratic yard signs in the past. People have thrown cans and beer bottles at their property, they said. They think the large Trump banner next door was a response to their yard full of signs four years ago.
Of their neighbor, Liane Gethen said, “We don’t talk. He thinks differently than we do.”
Communities like Shaler and West Mifflin are at the heart of America’s current political divide, putting neighbors on opposite sides of increasingly nasty political feuds.
Wright said she has detected an uptick in racist actions from neighbors and nearby business owners, and she felt it was connected with Trump’s rise to power in 2016. “People are feeling very empowered by him,” she said. “They say, ‘We’re going to make West Mifflin great again.’ They don’t want me in here.”
Chuha said he usually keeps his opinions to himself unless he’s talking to someone who agrees with him. “People on the left get so enraged when you tell them you vote for Trump.”
Frederick said he refrained from flying a Trump flag outside his home to avoid upsetting a neighbor who is opposed to the former president. “I can have a civil conversation and I’m nice. The Democrats are the ones who get all amped up and nasty.”
In the same interview, Frederick said Democrats are “elitists” and said he thinks “a lot of people who are not pro-Trump are not pro-God.”
Josh McFall said inflation is the top issue on his mind as the election nears. He’s not sure yet which candidate he will choose to address it, he said.
The 28-year-old elementary school teacher has lived in Shaler for about a year. “I feel like I’m in the middle … I think some of my views are more Republican, I just wish we had different options.”
“I’m definitely not excited,” about the election, he said, “I’m torn on it to be honest.”
This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org.
Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
Stephanie Strasburg is a photojournalist with PublicSource who can be reached at stephanie@publicsource.org, on Instagram @stephaniestrasburg or on Twitter @stephstrasburg.
This story was fact-checked by Spencer Levering.
PublicSource is Pittsburgh’s home for impactful journalism and community-driven storytelling.
