(Headline USA) Democratic voters in President Joe Biden’s home state of Pennsylvania are increasingly switching to the GOP ahead of the 2024 election, according to recent voter-registration data.
As of Dec. 18, 35,598 Democrats in the swing state have switched their registration to Republican this year. Just 15,622 Republicans have switched to the Democratic Party.
A significant number of Pennsylvania voters also decided to leave their respective party affiliations altogether, with 20,908 Democrats and 18,927 Republicans choosing to ditch the parties and vote as independents.
Biden was born in Scranton, Pa., and spent his first 11 years in the Keystone state until his family relocated to Delaware in 1953.
He often cites his connection to the state in an effort to make himself seem relatable to the middle and working classes. However, polling proves that Biden is now “unpopular” among Pennsylvanians, in large part because of “Bidenomics,” said Nathan Benefield, senior vice president of the Pennsylvania-based Commonwealth Foundation.
“Voters are saying they’re not happy with Bidenomics and the economy, and I think that’s reflected in the registration and some of the voting patterns,” Benefield told Fox News. “Whether Trump and Biden are at the top of the ticket or not, I do think it’s going to be pretty much one of the closest states next year.”
Pennsylvania was one of the swing states that helped secure Biden’s victory over Trump in 2020.
Despite Trump enjoying a significant lead on election night, mail-in ballots put Biden over the top in the state by just 1.2 percentage points, with Trump losing by just under 80,000 votes.
The closeness of the past race could raise concerns among Republicans about 2024, since Pennsylvania’s leading officials are Democrats. Just last month, a top executive from a voting machine company used in Pennsylvania, ES&S, admitted that someone from their team “programmed” a local election in Northampton County.
Also last month, a federal court ruled that Pennsylvania must count all mail-in ballots, even those with missing or incorrect dates. U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter claimed in the decision that the act of discarding or disqualifying ballots due to improper or missing date markings violated federal civil rights.
