Pittsburg, PA
We went to Pennsylvania to ask voters how they’re feeling. Here’s what we learned
A view of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 29, 2024.
Nate Smallwood for NPR
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Nate Smallwood for NPR
Who’s going to win?
Voters in a handful of battleground swing states will decide whether former President Donald Trump will return to the White House or if Democrats’ gamble of replacing President Biden with Vice President Harris as their nominee will keep him out.
A Morning Edition team visited Pittsburgh and some of its suburbs to hear from voters in Pennsylvania about how they’re feeling about the revamped race. We knocked on doors, visited local parks and attractions and even attended a family dinner.
Voter turnout here in Allegheny County was critical to Biden winning the state four years ago. More people voted than in 2016 and, even in towns that Biden lost, he still picked up support that got him across the finish line.
Pennsylvania narrowly went for Trump in 2016, breaking its run of voting for the Democratic presidential nominee since 1992. His message resonated with working-class voters here, where the coal, steel and manufacturing industries have been in decline for decades.
On our visit, we learned that plenty of enthusiasm and support for Trump remains.
Retired police chief Alan DeRusso told us he’s excited to vote for Trump again as a “Let’s Go Brandon” flag fluttered on his front porch.
What do his neighbors here in Moon Township think of his political sign, we ask.
“I really don’t care,” he said with a chuckle. “I mean, as a cop, I couldn’t do too much. But as I’m retired, I can do whatever I want.”
He told us he’s a registered Democrat, but that he can’t stand the party anymore.
Alan DeRusso poses for a portrait outside his home in Moon Township, Pennsylvania on July 23, 2024.
Nate Smallwood for NPR
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Nate Smallwood for NPR
He listed off his concerns, including inflation, trans kids in sports and border security, which he linked to Harris.
“She’s been [to the border] once for a drive thru. That was it,” DeRusso said. “What’s come to our border? Nobody knows.”
Some conservatives have incorrectly claimed that Harris was assigned to be Biden’s “Border Czar.” The vice president was tasked with examining causes of migration in 2021, primarily from Mexico and Central America.
When it comes to Trump’s felony convictions – for falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels – the former police chief has concluded that Trump did nothing wrong.
“I think there should be a full investigation as to why those charges were even pursued,” DeRusso said.
Down the street, his neighbor Mahendra Shukla, a naturalized U.S. citizen from India, felt similarly.
Trump’s conviction in New York earlier this year didn’t change his view of the former president and he felt the case was unfair because of when it was tried in court.
“He was guilty, not now, he was guilty whenever he committed the crime, but nobody came after him [then],” Shukla said.
Shukla spoke to us as a construction crew worked on renovations to his home, which he has lived in since 2016.
A neighborhood street in Moon Township, PA on July 24, 2024, where NPR journalists talked to several residents about their views on the election.
Nate Smallwood for NPR
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Nate Smallwood for NPR
He voted for Trump that year and again in 2020, but his politics are not clear cut, he said. He’s a registered Republican. But in 2008, when he became a U.S. citizen and first eligible to vote, he did so for President Barack Obama.
This election, he said he will definitely not be voting for Harris. Shukla said he was concerned that gender and race played a role in Harris’ selection as vice president in 2020. That year, Biden did say he would select a woman to be his running mate but did not explicitly say that it would be a person of color.
So, we asked Shukla, does that mean he’d vote for Trump a third time? “Ideally, I would not like to vote for Donald Trump,” he said, adding, however, that he sees a benefit to Trump.
“Most politicians are two people. One is on the camera and the other is on the back side,” Shukla said. “Democrats and many Republicans, they don’t show their real person. I want to see the real person. [With] Donald Trump, the advantage is that I get what I see.”
A few miles north in Sewickley, Sylvia Marco was thrilled at the prospect of voting for a woman presidential candidate.
We met her as she was helping to lay out booths for a harvest festival near Beaver Street, an area lined with trendy restaurants and shops in this affluent suburb.
Sylvia Marco poses for a portrait in Sewickley, Pennsylvania on July 24, 2024.
Nate Smallwood for NPR
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Nate Smallwood for NPR
“I liked [Harris] all along,” Marco said. “Of course, I would love to see a woman president because I was all in for Hillary Clinton.”
She’s concerned about Trump’s fitness for office, the GOP’s 2024 platform, the state of democracy and his seeming admiration of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Her husband, Bob Marco, whom she described as being a little more conservative than she is, was nearby.
“Bob!” she called and he made his way over. We asked if he would be canceling out Sylvia’s vote with a vote for Trump.
Robert Marco, poses for a portrait in Sewickley, Pennsylvania on July 24, 2024.
Nate Smallwood for NPR
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Nate Smallwood for NPR
“Yeah,” he responded, chuckling, before quickly backpedaling with “No, I’m not. No, I’m not.”
“If he votes for Trump, he’s being kicked out of the house,” Sylvia quipped.
“I’m voting for Harris,” he said, adding that he doesn’t want a president who is a convicted felon.
In South Heights, a town that sits just off the Ohio River, Reggie and Jim Madonna’s family gathered for their weekly Tuesday night dinner.
There we met their grandson Jimmy Madonna, a 25-year-old working in environmental inspection and compliance in the oil and gas industry. He’s the kind of newly energized voter Democrats are likely to be relieved to hear about.
He sat with us, eating a plate of halupki, a stuffed cabbage dish. He told us he’s always leaned left on politics, but this year, it’s been harder to get excited about the election. Though he disagrees with Trump and is concerned about Project 2025, a roadmap created by a conservative group to expand presidential authority, Biden just wasn’t the candidate for him.
Jimmy Madonna, 25, of Pittsburgh, Pa., poses for a portrait following a dinner with family in South Heights, Pennsylvania on July 23, 2024.
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“If Democrats can’t put up a candidate that can beat Trump and Trump becomes the president, then democracy needs to learn from that,” Jimmy Madonna said. “You have to beat him in an election one way or another, and whatever is produced by him the same way.”
But Madonna said Harris stepping in as the likely new Democratic candidate made him reconsider.
“The day that Joe Biden stepped down, I went from thinking ‘I might not vote in this election’ to ‘I’m definitely going to vote in this election, and be more involved in it,’” Jimmy Madonna said.
The race may come down to voters like Adrian Dilworth of the Hill District, a historically Black Pittsburgh neighborhood, and Cindy Runco of suburban Moon Township.
Dilworth was out and about in the neighborhood, near Salem’s, a grocery store that opened earlier this year to alleviate the area’s need for fresh groceries.
She feels that Biden stepping down was the right move, but she wishes Democrats had considered other candidates. She’s also worried about Harris’ past as a prosecutor and her approaches to criminal justice that have drawn criticism from advocates.
Dilworth, who returned to live in this neighborhood to be near family after many years away, said it needs jobs, more housing and better funding for its schools and roads.
The Hill District neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 24, 2024.
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Dilworth said she would like to hear Harris’ plans specifically for the country and Pittsburgh and see them come true. We asked if it mattered at all that Harris could become the first Black woman president. “It doesn’t matter as far as the qualifications. I want somebody who’s qualified to do the job and who’s going to be a candidate for the people,” Dilworth said. “There’s good, bad and indifferent in every color and every race. So I want to see a person that really has the best hearts and minds for the people.”
Back in Moon Township, we met Runco, who had just taken her granddaughter to the playground at Moon Park, where kids played on a splash pad, volunteers walked around picking up trash and as joggers circled the park.
We spoke to Runco as she and her granddaughter watched a plane come in low for a landing at nearby Pittsburgh International Airport.
“I am a registered Republican, but I don’t like the extreme right of the party,” Runco said. “I’m a little frightened by Project 2025 and how that will influence or is influencing the party.”
Runco spent 20 years in a Christian ministry and generally opposes abortion, but feels it is sometimes medically necessary.
She wants a moderate position on that issue and also thinks Democrats veer too far to the left. She’s not a fan of what she called Trump’s “bullying” and him calling people names, but she feels the alleged assassination attempt on him may have humbled him. She thinks he could still move back to the center, which she prefers.
A view of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 24, 2024.
Nate Smallwood for NPR
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Nate Smallwood for NPR
“I’m right in the middle right now,” she said of how she will vote.
And now there’s one more factor in her indecision.
“I’m concerned with Kamala, a woman, when you go up against somebody in the world like Putin and what’s happening in China in some of those countries, I am concerned about that,” Runco said. “I don’t know that it’s the right time. Running the country is one thing, but international affairs is a whole ‘nother issue.”
She’s not persuaded by the examples of women who have run other nations.
“Because we are such a large, powerful country. It’s not like if you had a woman in a smaller country. Now, I do consider, depending on who the VP is, if it’s a strong man, that there might be enough.”
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A simple blood test to screen for colorectal cancer was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
According to the American Cancer Society, 53,000 people will die of colorectal cancer this year and less than 60 percent follow screening guidelines. Doctors are hoping the newly approved screening tool will help change that.
“I’m very happy that we have an additional tool in our toolbox to help people get screened for colon cancer,” said Dr. James McCormick, chief of colon and rectal surgery at Allegheny Health Network.
Dr. McCormick is excited about the FDA-approved first-of-its-kind blood test. It’s meant for people 45 and older with an average risk for the disease.
“You just get your blood drawn. What they’re doing is looking in the blood for circulating tumor DNA. So, DNA that the tumor will have released into the blood, and it would be able to detect that,” Dr. McCormick said.
In Guardant Health’s clinical trials, the blood test was 83 percent accurate in detecting cancer that’s already formed.
“That’s someone who’s already has a cancer. For the precancer solutions, unfortunately, it’s down in the 13 to 20% range that it can pick that up. So, it’s not going to pick up those polyps before they become cancer,” he said.
The Shield test is not a replacement for colonoscopies. Any positive blood test result would then require a colonoscopy.
“It’s different from a colonoscopy, which is the traditional screening test that we offer people, where we can take precancerous tumors at the time of the colonoscopy and remove them before they can become cancerous tumors. That’s still the best screening test, and really the only test that you should have if you have any symptoms at any age,” Dr. McCormick said.
McCormick reiterated that people who get symptoms at any age should get screened and that everyone should be screened for colon cancer at age 45. He said despite efforts to spread the word, 20 or 25 percent of people never get screened.
He hopes the blood test will help boost the rate of screenings and save more lives.
“If there’s a reason that they’re not getting screened that is solved by the Shield test, then we’ll take it. We’ll get them in that way,” Dr. McCormick said.
This approval comes at a time when more people have been developing colon cancer at younger ages.
“We’re even seeing patients in their 20s and 30s with colon cancer, even with no family history. And we have no idea why or who is going to be affected by this,” Dr. McCormick said.
He said never to ignore symptoms. If something is different with your bowel, fight for yourself and make sure you get the test you need.
“Anytime there’s bleeding, there’s abdominal pain, anytime there’s a change in the way your bowels work that persists more than just a few weeks, definitely call your doctor and insist upon getting a colonoscopy,” Dr. McCormick said.
The Shield test has been used by doctors for high-risk surveillance after treatment. A stool test is another screening tool that’s available.
Dr. McCormick said if a blood test and a stool test are negative, those would probably be repeated every three years. Negative colonoscopies only need to be done every 10 years.
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Rain chances will return to the Pittsburgh area today with severe weather possible tomorrow and Wednesday.
Strong wind speed is the biggest concern when it comes to Tuesday and Wednesday storms. I have a higher storm chance coming in on Tuesday. NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center offices have Wednesday shaded in with a level 1 out of 5 severe weather risk. This is the lowest risk level issued daily. Tuesday is not included on the risk map at all.
Rain chances will be around on Thursday and Friday as well. I have Saturday’s rain chance the highest of the week.
Highs today will be in the mid-80s. Yesterday was the tenth day so far this month where we have seen temperatures hitting the 90s. I’ll dip temperatures down to the low 80s on Tuesday and bring them back to the mid-80s for Wednesday. I have highs hitting 90 on Thursday with temperatures in the mid-80s Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with low humidity levels.
Finally, air quality at times will be an issue this week. Today’s an air quality alert day with air being unhealthy for sensitive groups today. Including green levels that are ‘good’ there are six levels when it comes to air quality. We are a level 3 today. A level three is listed as moderate and Air.gov says that on these days the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.
We will see several level 2 and level 3 (again out of six levels) days this week with wildfire smoke being a higher issue for the middle and end of the week.
Did you know Ron Smiley does movie reviews?
I saw Twisters the movie over the weekend. Without giving up any spoilers, my main takeaway is to have a plan in place in case the weather turns dangerous wherever you may. I know that Hollywood is going to Hollywood, but the way that they made storm chasers and scientists the only knowledgeable people in every severe event was a little annoying. Constantly they were the only ones who knew where tornado shelters were. You had people who worked at businesses that were clueless about what to do when a tornado was heading right for them. Seconds count at times. Make sure you know exactly what to do and that those you love to as well. Hopefully, this isn’t a tip that you’ll need to thank me for later. Besides that, Twisters was a fun summer blockbuster with some amazing special effects. I give the movie four out of five smiles with five being a perfect score.
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