Former President Donald Trump reclaims Erie County, turning crucial bellwether red again
(This story was updated to accurately reflect the most current information.)
Erie lived up to its reputation as one of the country's ultimate bellwether counties in a critical battleground state.
On Tuesday, voters here gave former President Donald Trump another razor-thin victory, a nearly identical margin to his 2016 win — just under 2,000 votes — reflecting the will of the entire Pennsylvania electorate.
Trump's victory in Pennsylvania was the death knell of Vice President Kamala Harris' candidacy, which hinged almost entirely on a Blue Wall strategy of winning the Keystone State, as well as Wisconsin, which was also called in Trump's favor, and Michigan.
Erie County has voted in lockstep with the rest of the state in every presidential election dating to 1992 and only twice, in 2016 and now in 2024, have voters here chosen the Republican.
The county drew journalists from around the globe and the national attention prompted visits from both Trump and Harris, as well as their vice presidential running mates and several surrogates.
Voters respond
"Last night was disappointing," said Democrat Philip Seaver-Hall, a 28-year-old lawyer who's chairman of the Erie County Young Democrats, "but the coming days will likely be worse. America has fallen under the spell of a strongman. I fear for what comes next, and we have no one to blame but ourselves."
Seaver-Hall then quoted Irish playwright and political activist George Bernard Shaw: "Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."
Rich Washburn, 36, of North East, voted a straight GOP ticket and backed Trump for his strong opposition to illegal migration.
Washburn, of the Philippines, is an immigrant herself. She came to the U.S. a decade ago on an exchange visitor visa, which led and earned her citizenship about five years ago.
"For me personally, I think my morals and everything — I mean, he's a (expletive) — but what he wants for the country is what I wanted. I kind of like set aside him being a (expletive), because he cares for the country and that's all I want."
"I don't have anything against the illegal immigrants, but when I came here I came here in a legal way and I paid so much money and it's just annoyed me thinking we've got these illegal people who come here and don't go through the legal process."
Washburn, who works in the food and nutrition department at a local hospital, said of a Trump victory, "I look forward to a greater nation."
Erie County was one of only 25 "pivot" or "boomerang" counties in the nation — voting for President Barack Obama twice, then Trump, and back to the Democratic nominee, President Joe Biden, in 2020 — heading into Tuesday's contest. The only other boomerang county in Pennsylvania, Northampton, also went for Trump.
With all 149 precincts reporting, Trump received 67,399 votes to Harris's 65,464 votes, according to unofficial results from the Erie County Board of Elections. Those results don't include provisional ballots or ballots that need to be reviewed manually because they could not be fed into a scanner.
The only votes left to count are a few hundred provisional ballots and more than 230 damaged ballots, which have minor flaws preventing them from being fed into a ballot scanner.
Matthew Rink can be reached at [email protected] or on X at @ETNRink.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Trump victorious in pivotal Erie County, beats Harris by 2,000 votes