Pennsylvania Democrats don't just want to beat Trump in 2020: They want the state House back

A Democratic state senator who represents a northeast Pennsylvania district that voted for Barack Obama in 2012 and Donald Trump in 2016 dropped his party registration last week and declared he would caucus with Republicans in Harrisburg.

The next day, a veteran Republican state representative who represents a suburban Philadelphia district that voted for Mitt Romney and then Hillary Clinton announced he wouldn’t seek reelection in 2020.

The developments underscored trends that are cleaving Pennsylvania, and much of the country, along partisan and geographic lines. Even as Democrats have taken control of the once GOP-friendly suburbs, they’re ceding power outside major metropolitan areas, especially in rural and white working-class communities.

Democrats had considered both chambers of the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania legislature to be prime targets for a takeover in 2020. Winning a majority in the state Senate now looks like more of a long shot, strategists in both parties said last week. Republicans are expected to have a 29-21 edge there by next fall.

Read more: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2019/11/26/Pennsylvania-Democrats-fight-regain-House-election-2020/stories/201911260127