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A Pennsylvania County and the Political Tensions in America

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A Pennsylvania County and the Political Tensions in America

Luzerne County is one of many counties in Pennsylvania — and across the country — that shifted to the right this year.

We spent two weeks there before and after the election to understand what’s driving these changes.

By Philip Montgomery and Michael Sokolove

Nov. 15, 2024

On the Sunday before the election, the state chapter of Bikers for Trump organized a ride of 100 motorcycles in Luzerne County.

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They planned to travel from just outside Wilkes-Barre to Scranton, President Biden’s hometown, in neighboring Lackawanna County.

This northeast corner of Pennsylvania used to be called coal country.

Today the largest private employers are warehouses, including facilities for Amazon, T.J. Maxx and the pet-supplies retailer Chewy.

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The politics of the area have also shifted.

For two decades its voters reliably leaned Democratic, but Donald Trump won the county in 2016 and again four years later, both times by solid margins.

Dwayne McDavitt, a retired prison guard and a Bikers for Trump leader, is one of the more visible local backers of the former president.

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Before the rally in Scranton, he explained that he doubted the result of the 2020 election because he simply did not believe Trump could have lost fairly: “Tell me how Joe Biden could get 81 million votes.”

But Democrats hoped they could move the county back in their direction and made an intensive effort to do so.

In the weeks ahead of the election, busloads of Democratic canvassers fanned out across Luzerne County.

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Kevin Kraynak, a Luzerne County native, traveled from his home in California to try to get out the vote.

He hit his 100th mile of canvassing in Forty Fort, outside Wilkes-Barre. “I’m going to walk until my legs fall off,” he said.

County officials were vigilant leading up to Election Day. Luzerne County became a hotbed of election denialism in 2020, and Pennsylvania is an open-carry state. Some people feared voters might bring guns to the polls. Election workers were told they could bring their own guns.

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The night before the election, a group of campaign volunteers organized by Jennifer Ziemba, the wife of the Luzerne County Republican Party chairman, gathered at Ziemba’s home in Harveys Lake, a prosperous community outside Wilkes-Barre.

They were calling Republican voters whose mail-in ballots had flaws like a missing date to tell them they had to cast provisional ballots in person.

“We’re not really MAGA-looking,” one of the women said. But they were staunch Trump supporters.

Philip Montgomery for The New York Times

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“The women voting solely on abortion make me crazy,” Ziemba said. “I’d gladly give up my abortion rights and my daughter’s for my son not to have to go to war. We’ll have peace with Trump.”

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Another woman, Lee Ann McDermott, who owns a real estate appraisal business with her husband, John, thinks the economy will improve under Trump. “With the interest rates high, no one was refinancing.”

On Election Day, most of the state’s counties shifted further to the right, tilting Pennsylvania and its 19 Electoral College votes to Trump by about 130,000 voters.

Just over 152,000 total ballots were cast in Luzerne County — about the same as in 2020.

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But Trump increased his margin to 20 points from 14. In only one other Pennsylvania county were Trump’s gains greater.

For Democrats, it was a devastating result.

“This is scary to me,” Constance Wynn said. She had downloaded Project 2025. “I need to understand what he’s planning to do.”

She was sitting in the front parlor of her Wilkes-Barre home, built by her great-great grandfather.

Wynn’s ancestors escaped slavery by fleeing to Pennsylvania before the Civil War.

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The morning after the election, some of the Bikers for Trump gathered to celebrate at D’s Diner, in the Wilkes-Barre suburb of Plains Township.

A man they did not know, a retired financial planner named Kim Pace, approached their table. He began by saying that his wife did not think it was a good idea to talk to them. He had voted for Harris.

“Congratulations, guys,” he said. “I hope it all works out.” His tone suggested that he was doubtful.

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Philip Montgomery for The New York Times

Dave Ragan, a U.S. Army veteran who had arrived on his motorcycle, stood up to respond. “We changed the world!” he said. “I don’t have to worry about my stepdaughter having a boy in the locker room.”

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“Let me tell you something,” Pace said. “That stuff is overblown.” He wished them well and left.

Away from the table, he said, “If Harris had won, there was going to be trouble.”

In the days after the election, political tensions lingered in the community.

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On Thursday evening, John McDermott, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, sat at home with his wife, Lee Ann, drinking a vodka and tonic after a round of golf. McDermott voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Trump in 2020.

This year, he voted for Harris. “I couldn’t bring myself to vote for him,” he said. “He’s a convicted felon. He believes in conspiracy theories.”

Lee Ann, a county council member, saw matters differently: She was one of the women making calls at Jennifer Ziemba’s house on the eve of the election. Now she was on her way to meet some of them at a restaurant to toast Trump’s win.

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The mood was festive when McDermott arrived. “We’re getting Trumpy!” one of the women exclaimed, as they raised their cosmopolitans and glasses of wine.

Philip Montgomery for The New York Times

Among the revelers was Shelley Meuser, the wife of Representative Dan Meuser, whose district includes a part of Luzerne County.

“We got our country back!” shouted Terry Eckert, who is a real estate agent.

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Philip Montgomery for The New York Times

Thirty miles down the road from Wilkes-Barre is Luzerne County’s other city, Hazleton. Its population of 30,000 is 63 percent Latino, an estimated 90 percent of whom are from the Dominican Republic.

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Trump won the city decisively, increasing his share of its vote from 2020 by 7 points — substantially more than the 1.9 points he gained statewide.

The community is generally low-income, churchgoing and conservative.

Adaíris Casado, who was at Ada’s Collection, the local store she owns, said that her religion — and a conviction that Trump shares her values — led her to vote for him. “I’m worried about gay marriage,” she said, “and transgender.”

Fredelina Paredes, a paraprofessional at the nearby high school, was at home the weekend after the election with her three children and husband, who works in a plastics factory.

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She has voted for Democrats in the past, including Hillary Clinton, before voting for Trump twice. One of her brothers, a first-time voter, also voted for Trump. Paredes said the Democrats no longer represent her values, especially on the issue of abortion.

She was upset about the economy, saying she just spent $9.99 for a package of grapes. “For grapes. Can you imagine that?”

Like others in Hazleton, she supported Trump’s immigration policies, including deportation plans. “I feel bad for the ones I’ve known,” she said, “friends who have been here 15 or 20 years. But you were here all that time, why didn’t you try to get your papers?”

There are at least six Catholic churches and many Pentecostal congregations in the community. One of them is the Iglesia Cristiana Agua de Vida Hazleton, where Elizabeth Torrez is the pastor.

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Torrez voted for Trump and made every effort to persuade her parishioners to do the same. It wasn’t difficult, she said.

“He is always talking about God and the Bible,” she said through an interpreter. “He only has God in his mouth.”

She also supported Trump’s immigration policies. There are church members who are undocumented, she said, but she was convinced they would be deported only if they commit crimes.

One of those undocumented members of the congregation is Wadan Fernandez, who has relatives in Hazleton and said he came to the United States about two years ago to start a new life. He has overstayed his tourist visa and has been working in construction and other jobs.

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“I love Mr. Trump,” Fernandez said. “Of course he could send me back at any moment, but if he did, I would still love him.”

Philip Montgomery for The New York Times

Philip Montgomery is a photographer whose work examines the fractured state of America. Michael Sokolove, a contributing writer for the magazine since 2002, has written extensively on Pennsylvania and its politics.

Videos by Tre Cassetta.

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Trump-aligned House holdouts accused of holding ‘life-saving’ veterans bill ‘hostage’ over SAVE America Act

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Trump-aligned House holdouts accused of holding ‘life-saving’ veterans bill ‘hostage’ over SAVE America Act

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A sweeping veterans package supporters describe as the largest expansion of veterans’ health care and benefits in more than a decade is expected to return to the House floor when lawmakers come back from the July recess, but backers warn the legislation could once again become collateral damage in the Republican standoff over the SAVE America Act.

The Take Care of America’s Veterans Act rolls roughly 60 veterans bills into a package that would dramatically expand veterans’ health care and benefits. At its core, the legislation would cement veterans’ access to community care outside the VA while increasing benefits for combat-wounded veterans, caregivers and Gold Star families, expanding mental health services and enacting dozens of additional reforms.

House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill., told Fox News Digital he intends to bring the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act back for a vote as soon as the House reconvenes next week.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – MARCH 17: Eugene Simpson, 29, from Dale City, Virginia goes through physical therapy at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C. with Michael Minor, a kinesiotherapist with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs on March 17, 2006 in Washington, D.C., USA. (Photo by Jeff Hutchens/Getty Images) (Jeff Hutchens/Getty Images)

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HOUSE CONSERVATIVES DERAIL GOP AGENDA IN SAVE AMERICA ACT SHOWDOWN

The legislation was held up last month after a group of House Republicans joined Democrats to defeat a procedural vote, stopping the House from taking up the bill.

“I’m feeling good as long as my members stay with us on the rule,” Bost said. “Right now, there’s some politics being played, not about this bill, but just in general.”

The bill became entangled in a broader House Republican fight over the SAVE America Act, legislation championed by President Donald Trump that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

On June 30, the House voted on H. Res. 1398, the procedural rule governing floor consideration of several bills, including the National Defense Authorization Act and the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act. The rule failed after 14 Republicans joined Democrats in opposition, preventing the House from taking up the veterans package and bringing floor business to a standstill. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., claimed to have voted against the rules vote in protest against House leadership’s handling of the SAVE America Act. As a result, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson sent the members home early.

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Bost accused the holdouts of effectively putting veterans legislation on hold.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs building is seen in Washington, DC, on July 22, 2019. (Photo by Alastair Pike / AFP) (Photo credit should read ALASTAIR PIKE/AFP via Getty Images) (Photo credit should read ALASTAIR PIKE/AFP via Getty Image)

‘IT’S A MESS’: GOP TURNS ON HOUSE CONSERVATIVES AS VOTER ID BLOCKADE STALLS TRUMP’S AGENDA

“They’re holding all bills hostage,” Bost said. “They’re not voting for any rule. Any bill that has to pass a rule before it comes to the floor—which this bill does because of its size—can’t move.”

Although Bost said he supports the SAVE America Act and has voted for it three times, he argued the Senate’s failure to act should not stop the House from advancing unrelated legislation.

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“I agree with that bill,” Bost said. “But the Senate still has to do their work. We don’t stop our work because the Senate isn’t doing it.”

With 23 legislative days left in the Congressional session, Concerned Veterans for America Strategic Director John Byrnes, a supporter of the bill, said time is of the essence.

“There are lots and lots of things that have to get done,” Byrnes told Fox News Digital. “There’s also the National Defense Authorization Act, which is a must pass every year, so these things eat up time. There’s requirements to have debate on these, which eat up session time.”

Byrnes argued that every procedural delay pushes other legislation further down the calendar.

“This bill will save lives in 2027,” Byrnes said. “If we lose veterans because they could have had faster, better access to health care, we’re never going to get those veterans back.”

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Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill. ( )

TRUMP’S SAVE AMERICA ACT SHOWS SIGNS OF LIFE IN THE SENATE DESPITE REPUBLICAN REVOLT

But Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who also voted no on the procedural vote, told Fox News Digital that he has concerns about how the bill is financed.

“I appreciate what the chairman’s trying to do in some respects, but there’s a few issues,” Roy said.

Among them, Roy pointed to provisions offsetting new spending through changes affecting other veterans.

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“You’re taxing certain veterans to provide some sort of benefits and changes to other veterans,” Roy said. “There are concerns about some of the pay-fors.”

Veterans of Foreign Wars has also taken issue with Section 108 of the bill, warning that it would codify changes to future disability ratings for tinnitus and sleep apnea to help finance other veterans priorities.

But Bost said this is inaccurate.

“No veteran is going to have their benefits reduced,” Bost said. “If you’re receiving a benefit right now, that’s not going to be reduced at all.”

Roy, who previously served two years on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said he supported a lot of what the bill was seeking to accomplish; but said other pieces of legislation are priorities, too.

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“There is a block of us for whom border security, the SAVE Act and demonstrating our leadership on major issues is critical,” Roy said. “Some of these other bills may or may not get hung up based on a desire of many in the conference to see movement on other things.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Luna’s office and the White House for comment.

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Assassinations unleashed under Trump haunt Iran war endgame

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Assassinations unleashed under Trump haunt Iran war endgame

Shortly before President Trump ended a ceasefire with Iran this week, Israeli officials presented his team with intelligence indicating Tehran was hatching new plots to kill him.

It was not the first such warning. U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies have tracked evidence for years of Iranian efforts to target the president, with signals only increasing since the start of the war.

Their desire to target Trump and his top aides began six years ago, just outside Baghdad International Airport, when the president ordered a drone strike that killed Iran’s most powerful general. The assassination of Qassem Suleimani brought the two countries to the brink of war.

Yet even as full-scale war was averted, top Iranian officials vowed revenge for the strike, authorizing attempts on the lives not just of the president, but of his secretary of State and national security advisor, among others, even after they had left office.

Now, calls for revenge have reached a sharper pitch in Tehran, after a joint U.S.-Israeli operation killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the start of the war in February.

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At Khamenei’s funeral ceremonies this week, red flags of vengeance flew throughout the capital as protesters explicitly called on their government to “kill Trump.” His son, Mojtaba, the new supreme leader, was absent from the commemorations, fearing assassination himself.

Mourners hold an anti-President Trump banner at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque during mass funeral prayers for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his family in Tehran on Sunday.

(Morteza Nikoubazl / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The prospect of foreign assassination plots targeting U.S. leaders puts the United States in dangerous new territory, where its embrace of political killings could ultimately place its own officials at unprecedented risk. And experts fear the existential threat of assassination has pushed peace further out of reach: When both sides believe their survival is at stake, the trust required for diplomacy becomes far harder to achieve.

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Israeli news organizations have reported that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, cited Iranian attempts to kill Trump in recent years as part of his case to go to war in the first place.

A U.S. official told The Times that a range of serious threats exist against the president, including from Iran, but that Israel’s intelligence pointed to a more specific plot. The official did not provide further details. Israeli officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has said in recent months that the government sees vengeance against U.S. officials as “its legitimate duty and right,” and “will fulfill this great responsibility and duty with all its might.”

“The Suleimani killing accelerated a lifting of restraints on foreign assassinations — and the taboo on targeting and killing foreign leaders, with U.S. military assets, has been more or less lifted,” said Matt Dallek, a political professor at George Washington University.

“If the United States sets the example of how to conduct international relations, and it is using assassination of foreign leaders as a political weapon, it’s only logical that other countries will be more inclined to also engage in assassinations,” Dallek added. “It does seem likely that Trump will have a bigger target on his back.”

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Returning from a NATO summit in Turkey on Wednesday, Trump was forced to switch back to an old model of Air Force One — equipped with specialized defensive technologies — from a new plane given as a gift by Qatar, after the Secret Service warned of potential threats to the aircraft from Iran.

“They want to take out the U.S. leader — me,” Trump told reporters aboard the plane. “I’m on whatever list. I saw this morning I’m on every single one of their lists. And so far, I guess I’ve been a bit lucky, but maybe that doesn’t last very long.”

The threat has remained on his mind in the days since. In an interview with the New York Post, Trump told the reporter, “I hope you’ll miss me,” adding that he has “been on their list for a long time.” And in a subsequent social media post Friday night, he warned of a catastrophic response he instructed the administration to pursue in the event Tehran succeeds.

“1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he wrote, “with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!”

The United States had a decades-old prohibition against assassinating foreign leaders before Trump’s presidency, codified in an executive order signed by President Ford in 1976 over concerns of a CIA plot to kill Fidel Castro.

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The policy was only strengthened further by subsequent administrations, fearing a new international standard for targeted killings could result in unintended consequences in the halls of Washington.

Other administrations have been accused of targeting foreign leaders before. Under the Obama administration, an international coalition targeting the Libyan regime of Moammar Kadafi during the country’s 2011 civil war struck his fleeing convoy, leading to his capture and killing by rebel fighters.

But experts say Trump’s explicit targeting of Suleimani and Khamenei — and his public celebration of their deaths — marks a new paradigm.

“Through words and actions, President Trump has done more to normalize political violence than any other U.S. president, certainly in modern times,” said Robert Pape, a professor at the University of Chicago and author of “Our Own Worst Enemies: America in the Age of Violent Populism.”

“On the international front alone, the president routinely brags about killing Iranian leaders and seizing the leader of Venezuela, among others,” he added, “to the point that assassination is becoming the new normal in international politics.”

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Trump takes unusual step, lets bipartisan housing bill become law unsigned amid SAVE pressure campaign

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Trump takes unusual step, lets bipartisan housing bill become law unsigned amid SAVE pressure campaign

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A bipartisan housing bill became law Saturday at midnight after President Donald Trump declined to sign it, capping a weeks-long saga over whether the president would veto the measure amid frustrations with Congress over his stalled agenda.

Trump refused to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act — legislation aimed at expanding the nation’s housing stock and lowering costs — in an attempt to pressure Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, despite the housing bill clearing both chambers with overwhelming majorities.

“I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, which is polling at 97% with the Republican Party, and very high with the non-politician Dumocrats,” he declared on Truth Social Friday morning. 

The Trump-backed election measure, which would require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections and impose voter ID requirements, has struggled to overcome the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. 

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Meanwhile, the House has not passed a version of the bill that includes the president’s proposed crackdown on mail-in voting and banning men from women’s sports.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP)

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES DERAIL GOP AGENDA IN SAVE AMERICA ACT SHOWDOWN

Under the U.S. Constitution, Trump had 10 days, not including Sundays, to sign or veto the housing measure after the House formally transmitted the legislation to the White House in late June. The president ultimately chose neither option, allowing the measure to become law without his signature.

Though Trump declined to veto the legislation, he sharply criticized elements of the bill and argued it should not have been a legislative priority in recent weeks.

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“It’s so unimportant … compared to the SAVE America Act,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in late June. “I think the SAVE America Act is exactly what it says. It’s saving America from crooked elections.”

Trump went on to call the housing bill “a yawn,” adding, “compared to the SAVE America Act, just about everything is a big yawn.”

It would have taken a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override a veto — a margin the House and Senate exceeded when they passed the legislation. However, it remains unclear whether so many Republicans would have defied the president had he vetoed the bill.

Trump also appeared to criticize the bill over a provision restricting Wall Street investors from purchasing single-family homes — a policy he first proposed during his January State of the Union address and later urged Congress to pass. Trump previously argued the investor ban would give individual homebuyers a leg up against private equity firms in the housing market.

“I don’t want to hurt people that own houses, too,” Trump later told reporters, appearing to reference the provision. “These people, for the first time in their lives, they have valuable houses. They’ve become rich. I don’t want to hurt them either. What you want to do is what’s good for everyone, get the interest rates down.”

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The law also aims to boost housing supply by streamlining federal environmental reviews, loosening rules around the construction of factory-built homes, and incentivizing local governments to modify their zoning laws to allow more housing, among roughly 60 provisions.

Trump’s souring on the legislation created headaches for Republicans, who touted the bill as an affordability win as voters grapple with high housing costs.

“It’s irresponsible to postpone signing the Housing bill due to the SAVE Act,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a retiring lawmaker who lost re-election to a Trump-backed challenger, wrote on social media. “We need to start delivering relief to people for the high cost of housing ASAP!!”

Construction workers stand on the roof of homes under construction at a new housing development on June 24, 2026, in Valencia, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

WARREN TELLS TRUMP TO ‘SIGN THE DAMN BILL’ AS BIPARTISAN HOUSING PACKAGE REMAINS STALLED IN WASHINGTON

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Trump abruptly canceled a signing ceremony for the legislation at the U.S. Capitol in June with GOP leaders. The stage had already been set, with at least one senior Republican arriving unaware the president had called off the event shortly before it was scheduled to begin.

The president then declared he would not sign the legislation until Congress passed the SAVE America Act, despite Senate GOP leaders insisting the votes do not exist to advance the measure.

Trump has also expressed frustration with the Republican-controlled Senate for declining to weaken the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes to advance most legislation in the upper chamber.

“GET SMART REPUBLICANS, IF YOU DON’T, YOU WON’T BE IN OFFICE FOR LONG!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday.

Before Trump came out against the bill, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “one of the most significant pieces of housing affordability legislation in American history” and said it included an array of policies “long championed” by Trump.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 15, 2025. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, Trump political operative James Blair touted the legislation for including the president’s Wall Street investor ban, which he referred to as a “signature commitment.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has argued that Republicans will still promote the landmark housing bill ahead of November.

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“We’ll still celebrate it, but he’s trying to make a point, and I think he’s making it very effectively,” the speaker recently told reporters, referring to Trump. “And the fact that you all ask me every three steps down the hallway illustrates that he has achieved the desired objective, and that is to make SAVE America the number one thing, because if we don’t get that right, everybody’s concerned about what happens next.”

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