Charles McElwee, editor of Real Clear Pennsylvania, told ABC/WHTM’s This Week in Pennsylvania on Sunday that both parties are finding their traditional structures in the Keystone State under pressure. He says progressive socialist State Rep. Chris Rabb’s victory over establishment candidates in the third district Congressional primary is a demonstration of the left’s growing power over the Democratic Party’s machine in Philadelphia. On the other side, “Obama-Trump voters” are growing disenchanted with the Republican Party over Donald Trump’s foreign policy and his embrace of AI and data center construction. The Democratic Party as we know it in Philadelphia since 1951, when the party itself broke the near-century-long Republican domination, until let’s say, this week, there was an effort beginning in 2017, from the left progressives to beat the machine, the Democratic city committee, said Charles McElwee. “The one [the establishment machine] didn’t want was Rabb, and that’s the one who won,” he said. “That shows that the left is ascendant in Philadelphia. This is part of a broader dynamic. The political class in so many parts of Philadelphia, but across the state and country, no longer represents what the people think.” On the right, he says many Republican voters “are not happy with Trump and his foreign policy,” and his embrace of AI and data center construction is reminding some voters of the globalization they thought they were voting against. “This was the land of the Obama-Trump voters,” he said about Pennsylvania. “The voters harbored no love for the GOP when they first voted for Trump.” “The people who voted in Pennsylvania for Trump in ’16, ’20, ’24 might have liked Trump’s position on foreign policy, immigration, and the economy,” he said. “On immigration, clearly, he was tough on the border, especially what we saw with Biden.” “But when you swap globalization for AI, Pennsylvanians, as we know from just the data center debate alone, aren’t happy with it.” “And, of course, foreign policy,” he added, “Trump said, ‘I’m not Bush.’ This is feeling like Bush’s third term.” There are four congressional seats currently held by Republicans that Democrats think they can win in November, he said. “This may be their strongest shot in some time, and maybe a replay of 2006 to a certain extent, especially on the top issue: foreign policy, which in ’06 in Pennsylvania was Iraq. Now it’s Iran.” “But both parties also have a problem when it comes to Israel because surveys show, just recently, that most Americans of both parties under the age of 50 are not happy with Israel, and they’re not happy with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” McElwee said. “So it applies to the Democratic Party, and it applies to the Republican Party. A poll came out this week that showed that self-proclaimed MAGA voters are supportive of Israel, but non-MAGA voters on the Republican side who voted for Trump are opposed to Israel right now.”
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