(A veteran delegate from Pennsylvania believes former President Donald Trump could win the state again come November—bigly.
“I have believed even before the debate debacle, even before the shooting, Trump would probably win Pennsylvania and would win it handily,” said Charlie Gerow, a Republican strategist, during an interview with the Center Square from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Tuesday. “Potentially, it’s a landslide in Pennsylvania. He’s going to do very, very well.”
Trump narrowly won Pennsylvania’s electoral votes in 2016, besting Hillary Clinton by just under 45,000 ballots. In 2020, he lost to President Joe Biden by a margin of less than 81,000, despite having a sizeable lead on election night.
Trump’s 2016 win, however, was the exception and not the rule, Gerow said. The last presidential candidate to swing the state red was George H.W. Bush in 1988.
“That was a huge breakthrough for the Republicans and for President Trump, in particular,” he said.
Gerow owns Harrisburg-based Quantum Communications, one of the most well-connected political consulting firms in the state, and has attended every Republican National Convention since 1976. This is the first one, however, that’s invited a labor union on stage. In fact, on the first night of the convention, Trump invited two different labor-union leaders to speak.
“We grew up being told, oh, the Democrats are the working people’s party, and the Republicans are the silk-stocking rich elites,” he said. “Well, it’s really flipped on its head, particularly in my state where you see working Democrats, who’ve been that all their life, now not only voting Republican, but registering Republican and big supporters of Donald Trump.”
Sean O’Brien, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said the same from the convention stage in Milwaukee on Monday night.
“The American people aren’t stupid,” he said. “They know the system is broken. We all know how Washington is run. Working people have no chance of winning this fight.”
The Teamsters represent 1.3 million workers—from newspaper reporters to zookeepers to police officers and everything in between—across the country.
It was Republican congressional support guaranteeing sick leave for unionized rail workers, however, that inspired O’Brien to endorse Trump—even if he was called “traitor.”
“I want to be clear: at the end of the day, the Teamsters are not interested if you have a D, R or I next to your name,” he said. “We want to know one thing: what are you doing to help American workers.”
Gerow said the historical moment illustrates the populist turn of the Republican party.
“And it does reflect the fact that you’ve got a much bigger tent in the Republican party than you’ve ever had before and it is growing,” he said.
