PA has always been a weird purple state. We have demographics across the political spectrum, and most of the elected officials on both sides of the aisle are moderates and centrists. There’s little political will to pull the conservative social bullshit you see in the South, but there also isn’t much of a progressive movement out of any of the cities. We have high concentrations of extreme wealth in the suburbs bordering extreme poverty in urban and rural communities. We have horse farms and cities. We have shale deposits, corporate headquarters, strong unions, and meth labs. We have a significant Jewish population and a significant number of hate groups and christofascists. We have immigrants and Amish. We have some of the best schools and worst schools in the country, and they play football against each other.

If there’s one rule in PA politics, it’s that business is business. Fascists and progressives don’t get far because they both impede business. Most residents are exposed to a variety of people, but there’s enough land between the haves and the have nots to prevent too much empathy from taking root. The state legislature will always be red, and the executives will tend to be blue. Even if there’s a blue wave, it won’t likely result in anything too impressive.