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.
Nate Smallwood for NPR
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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.
Nate Smallwood for NPR
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Nate Smallwood for NPR
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.”
Two people are dead after an early morning crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
According to state police, around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, they were called to a single-vehicle crash near Hempfield Township in Westmoreland County.
A vehicle with two people inside reportedly drove onto an embankment, where it lost control. After losing control, it then hit the overpass, causing it to flip, which trapped the two people inside.
State police said that once fire and rescue crews arrived on the scene, both of the occupants of the vehicle were dead, and the coroner was called to the scene.
The Westmoreland County Coroner’s Office identified the driver as Hunter Fronius of Connellsville and the passenger as Raymond Foster, also of Connellsville.
According to the coroner’s report, the cause of death for both of the deceased was blunt force injuries, and the manner of death was ruled to be accidental.
The coroner’s report also stated that neither of the men in the vehicle was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.
Pennsylvania State Police are investigating the crash.
You don’t need to have your eyes checked, you are seeing things right – the Cincinnati Reds have won a second straight game against a National League Central division opponent. The win in a back-and-forth game came down to the 9th inning and down to their last strike the Reds got a 3-run home run from Eugenio Suarez and they held on to beat the Pirates and pick up a series win in Pittsburgh with one game left on Sunday.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (39-42) | 9 | 10 | 0 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates (41-42) | 7 | 11 | 2 |
| W: Ferguson (1-0) L: Soto (4-2) SV: Petty (1) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
After a delayed start due to some rain, the game started about 40 minutes after the originally scheduled time. Cincinnati didn’t take much time to grab a lead. Sal Stewart took the 4th pitch of the game and went the other way for a solo home run. Chase Burns had to work around two singles in the bottom of the inning but he got out of the jam to keep the lead.
Two innings later the Reds offense got back to it when Jose Trevino led off with a ground-rule double and later came in to score on a 2-out hit by Stewart as he picked up his second run batted in on the day. The Pirates put together a rally of their own in the bottom of the frame. Back-to-back singles got things started and then Brandon Lowe came through for the home team with a 3-run home run to put Pittsburgh in the lead. In the 4th inning they would tack on another run on a single by Jared Triolo that made it 4-2.
Cincinnati got back in the game in the 5th with plenty of help from the Pirates. Dane Myers walked and then took second base thanks to a balk. A wild pitch moved him to third base and he would later score on a double by Edwin Arroyo. A second wild pitch in the inning moved him up to third and then he scored when Brandon Lowe failed to come up with a grounder cleanly at second base with two outs and that tied up the game.
The next inning the Reds would take the lead. They would load the bases with one out thanks to a walk and two singles. That set things up for Jose Trevino who came through with a 2-run single that made it 6-4.
At 90 pitches on the day, Chase Burns headed back to the mound for the 7th inning with a lead but he gave up a leadoff double that just missed being a home run off of the top of the wall in right field. That ended his day and manager Terry Francona called on Sam Moll from the bullpen. He would get a groundout, but it moved Jared Triolo up to third base and he then came in to score on a sacrifice fly that made it a 1-run game. Moll then walked Bryan Reynolds and Nick Gonzales, bringing up left-handed hitter Ryan O’Hearn and he came through with a game-tying single into right field. Tejay Antone then entered the game and struck out Marcell Ozuna to end the inning.
Pittsburgh would see a new reliever to start the 8th inning as Caleb Ferguson took over for Antone. He got a line out to begin the inning but then Esmerlyn Valdez took the first pitch he saw and hit it into the seats in right field for a go-ahead solo home run to give Pittsburgh the lead.
Cincinnati entered the top of the 9th down by a run but they got the tying run on base immediately as Edwin Arroyo lined a single into right field. Elly De La Cruz was called out on strikes, but he challenged the call and it was overturned and turned strike three into ball four and the Reds had two men on with no outs. After Sal Stewart grounded into a double play, moving Arroyo to third base, JJ Bleday worked a walk to put runners on the corners for Eugenio Suarez. He came through in the biggest way as he took a 2-2 97 MPH fastball and went the other way for a 3-run home run to put Cincinnati up 9-7.
Now holding a lead the Reds sent Chase Petty to the mound. The first pitch he threw turned into a groundout. It took four pitches to get Bryan Reynolds to pop up for the second out. Petty fell behind the next hitter and wound up walking Nick Gonzalez, bringing Ryan O’Hearn to the plate as the tying run. He pulled a line drive down the line but Spencer Steer was standing right there to catch it and end the game.
Key Moment of the Game
Eugenio Suarez hitting a go-ahead 3-run home run in the top of the 9th inning.
Notes Worth Noting
Cincinnati had just two wins against the NL Central when this series began. They’ve now doubled that and have a chance at a sweep on Sunday.
Sal Stewart, Jose Trevino, and Edwin Arroyo all had 2-hit days.
Eugenio Suarez had been in a big slump, going 1-22 from June 16-23rd. But since then he’s been heating up a bit, going 4-11 with two doubles, a home run, and two walks in the last three games.
Chase Petty picked up his first career save.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds vs Pittsburgh Pirates
Sunday June 28th, 1:35pm ET
Brady Singer (3-6, 4.81 ERA) vs Mitch Keller (5-5, 4.89 ERA)
The Pittsburgh Penguins got what they wanted.
Friday night was life-changing for Pittsburgh Penguins’ first-round pick Liam Ruck of the Medicine Hat Tigers. The organization selected him with the 22nd overall pick. Saturday morning was life-changing for his identical twin brother Markus Ruck as the Penguins used the first of their second-round picks to select him.
And the twins and teammates in Medicine Hat, who have spent only four days apart in their first 18 years, got what they wanted, too. They’re both Pittsburgh Penguins.
Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas told reporters Friday night, following the conclusion of Round One, that it appeared more likely in the days leading to the draft that the team would not be able to trade up and that Liam Ruck would be available to them.
There were credible rumors emanating from the league side that some teams considered taking Markus to spur trade talks with the Penguins, but eventually, the other half of the WHL’s high-scoring duo was available Saturday morning with the 39th overall pick.
While Liam had 45 goals and 104 points in 68 games, Markus was the slick playmaking center who kept him fed. Markus Ruck had 108 points with 87 assists. Both brothers need to both add bulk but also improve their skating, which scouts consider a weakness.
Liam is the slightly larger twin, at 6-foot, 177 pounds. Markus weighs in at 6-foot, 167 pounds.
The story is developing, and Pittsburgh Hockey Now will update the story after Markus Ruck speaks with the media.
Categorized:2026 NHL Draft Pittsburgh Penguins
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