SCRANTON, Pa. — Walking up Wyoming Avenue downtown two days after Election Day, it’s hard to miss small signals of the red wave that caught Democrats nationwide off guard: a looming series of “Make America Great Again” stickers on almost every street light encroaching Biden Street — a thoroughfare honoring President Joe Biden through the heart of the Democratic-led city where he was born.
Several windows of empty storefronts and office buildings approaching Biden Street also feature campaign signs for victorious Republicans Donald Trump and David McCormick, the businessman who upset three-term Sen. Bob Casey, also of Scranton, pending a possible recount.
While some yards in the city’s hilly neighborhoods still display jack-o’-lanterns and spiderwebs, or already have sparkling Christmas decorations up, the number of still-standing campaign signs in Mr. Casey’s leafy neighborhood, along with countless Harris-Walz campaign signs and the occasional Trump-Vance signs in surrounding areas, speak to the city’s history of being front-and-center in state and national politics.
But now the region’s most prominent political figures are poised to leave office after shining the spotlight on the Electric City for decades.
“My half-joke is that Scranton is the center of the political universe,” said Jeff Brauer, a political science professor at Keystone College who’s lived in the city for more than 25 years. “It plays an oversized role not only in Pennsylvania politics but in American politics. This may be the end of that era.”
The tumultuous campaign season’s closing days saw Mr. Casey, who’s been in public service for almost 30 years as a member of a Pennsylvania political dynasty, facing a narrow defeat after being battered for a year by Mr. McCormick as a weak, liberal, Washington insider.
Meanwhile, “Scranton Joe” — mocked by Republicans and questioned by his own party over his age and ability to serve — reluctantly dropped out of the presidential race this summer after a devastating debate performance, only to have his vice president, Kamala Harris, lose decisively to the man Mr. Biden beat four years ago.
U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, a Democrat who’s represented Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and the Poconos in the House since 2013, is also out after losing to Trump-backed real estate developer Rob Bresnahan.
The outcomes have left many Democrats here dismayed. But they are also resolved to get back up after being knocked down, in the scrappy Scranton fashion that Mr. Biden — a longtime Delaware senator who lived here in his maternal grandfather’s home until he was 10 — has tied to lessons from his father in speeches for many years.
“These are sad, sad days here,” said Tom Owens, owner of Hank’s Hoagies just a short walk from Mr. Biden’s childhood home. “Shocking, shocking, shocking. Casey and Biden still won here in Scranton and Lackawanna County, but not — it’s shrinking, there are more Republicans now and a lot of people registering Republican.”
Mr. Casey won Lackawanna County by almost 10,000 votes, roughly 53% to Mr. McCormick’s 45%. He significantly outpaced Ms. Harris in the county, but six years ago, Mr. Casey defeated Lou Barretta here by almost 20,000 votes. Ms. Harris beat Trump in the county by fewer than 3,300 votes, whereas Mr. Biden won the county over Trump by a nearly 10,000-vote margin in 2020.
Mr. Brauer said he wasn’t ready to hammer the “final nail in the coffin” on Scranton’s place in the political limelight. He described the city as a “blueberry in a sea of tomato soup — still a blue county completely surrounded in the area,” and still “a swing area of the important swing state.”
Additionally, Mr. Casey is not conceding, with thousands of votes left to count and a possible automatic recount triggered if the margin falls below half a percentage point.
“Pennsylvania is the birthplace of our democracy — and we must ensure that the voice of every voter from across our commonwealth is heard in this election,” he posted on X Thursday.
Bill Gaughan, a Democratic Lackawanna County commissioner, told the Post-Gazette, “The general feeling in Scranton and in the county is that we’ve been knocked down a bunch of times.”
“My ancestors came over from Ireland in the early 1900s and we just keep getting up, keep fighting for what's right, the working class, the truth, and we’re not going to stop,” he said. “[Mr. Biden, Mr. Casey and Mr. Cartwright] are definitely going to be missed. They were champions for the working class and middle class in our area. They led with class, dignity, and it didn’t matter if you were Democrat, Republican or independent, they treated people like human beings and told the truth. We’re proud of them.”
Mr. McCormick, in a victory speech Friday, lauded Mr. Casey’s family and decades of public service. He noted that he once worked for Mr. Casey’s father, former Gov. Bob Casey Sr., and that “we obviously had an incredibly hard-fought race but there's no doubt that this is a family and this is a senator in Sen. Casey, a man who has served this great commonwealth with honor.”
But the Republican, whose upset of Mr. Casey came two years after he lost a GOP Senate primary to Trump-backed celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz by less than 1,000 votes, said it was time to move on after the Associated Press called the race. Mr. Casey, he said, “is going to have to work through this.”
“As the saying goes, ‘Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt,’” Vince Galko, a Republican strategist based in Northeastern Pennsylvania, told the Post-Gazette Friday. “The math doesn’t work for Bob Casey. He should do the honorable thing and concede. All he is doing now is tarnishing his legacy.”
Legacies tied to Scranton values
Mr. Brauer said Mr. Casey’s legacy — along with Mr. Biden’s — are deeply tied to Scranton values that aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“Scranton is this scrappy, hard-working place,” he said. “This idea that giving up is unforgivable — that’s the legacy of Biden and the Caseys. They tried to bring what they saw as the … stand up for yourself, fight attitude of Scranton. Perhaps that’s why Joe Biden stayed in the election too long.”
Mr. Brauer added that while he generally cringes at the term “royalty” as an American political scientist, there’s no question “we do still like our political families in the U.S. … and the Caseys have been the political family for decades, not only in Northeastern Pennsylvania but all of Pennsylvania — almost like the Kennedy dynasty in Massachusetts.” The family’s next generation is “quite huge” and he “could certainly see there would probably be some in that generation who would possibly go into electoral politics,” he said.
And the 64-year-old senator himself is “not old by any means ... I could see him perhaps running for governor again,” Mr. Brauer said.
“Certainly one of the big winners of Tuesday night was [Gov.] Josh Shapiro,” he added. “He gets out of this red wave unscathed. He’s set up perfectly now to run, and perhaps win, the presidency in 2028. Then of course that opens up the governorship for somebody like Bob Casey.”
Mr. Casey, who practiced law in Scranton before following his father’s footsteps and entering politics, previously served as state treasurer and auditor general. He is the state’s first Democrat to win three straight senatorial terms, winning each of his races by at least 9 percentage points.
In the 1960s and ‘70s, Bob Casey Sr. served in the state Senate and as auditor general, and won the governorship in 1986 after his fourth bid. The Casey name graces multiple roads, parks and buildings in the region, including the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre — which has hosted several Trump rallies since 2016. A signpost at the top of Woodlawn Islands, a small tree-lined neighborhood park here, honors the senior Casey as a “lifelong Scranton resident” who “pioneered the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a national model, and landmark environmental reforms such as the PENNVEST clean water program. He achieved national stature for his ardent pro-life stance.”
When his son won his first race against Republican Rick Santorum in 2006, he had run as a pro-life Democrat. Mr. Casey later championed protecting women’s and family’s reproductive rights after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, prompting Mr. McCormick to blast him as a flip-flopper.
Mr. Casey — who warned throughout the race that Trump, Mr. McCormick and the GOP could pave the way for a federal abortion ban — built a track record on Capitol Hill including legislation supporting children, seniors, veterans and Americans with disabilities.
“You say you want to cut spending, but sometimes the money goes toward good things,” he said.
‘Blaming’ Biden
Standing on the sidewalk facing Mr. Biden’s childhood home on Thursday, John and Anne Gohorel of Bovina, N.Y., paid tribute to the president before debating what went wrong for Democrats on Election Day.
John, who canvassed in Eastern Pennsylvania for the Harris campaign, said Democrats must study the results and crack the code to connect with more working-class voters, women, and Black and Latino voters. They also must rethink assumptions about “this idea of a Blue Wall” of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. “We better not count on that,” he said.
Anne argued the Democrats did nothing wrong — that Trump’s “cult of personality” is an anomaly that will wear off as his supporters come to terms with his second administration.
“Harris was trying to say that she wants affordable housing and to tax rich people so that the middle class and lower class could benefit,” she said. “But people … I don’t know, they just love [Trump]. It’s the strangest thing.”
Polls and interviews with Republican and independent voters across the state show the economy — particularly inflation and high prices for groceries, housing and energy — steered many Pennsylvanians against the Biden administration, Ms. Harris and, in turn, Mr. Casey.
“People genuinely believe the economy is in bad shape, and it’s not,” said Mr. Gaughan. “We have one of the strongest economies in the world. People were hit in their pocketbook with inflation. But people are under the false impression it’s all on the president, when it’s more about supply chains, the pandemic and a lot of other factors.”
Mr. Owens, of Hank’s Hoagies, said he “doesn’t know what people are talking about” when asked about economic concerns that helped drive support for Trump.
Yes, the pandemic and government spending addressing it helped lead to inflation, he said. “But the economy was good,” he said, arguing Democrats “didn’t do a good job selling” economic successes including new jobs and investments in roads and bridges across Pennsylvania and the country.
“It makes me mad, they’re blaming him again,” he added, referencing reactions to Ms. Harris’ loss. “What do you want? You forced him out.”
Mr. Owens, who described Mr. Biden, Mr. Casey and their families as kind and honorable, pointed out photos of a 2021 post-inauguration visit, a life-sized Biden cutout and a “wall of fame” featuring Mr. Biden twice (in 2009 and 2021) as well as ”Bobby Casey,” who Mr. Owens said he’s known “since he was a kid.”
Tucked behind a glass case displaying dusty campaign buttons, books, hats and other memorabilia for Mr. Biden and Gov. Casey, is a white bag containing two Hank’s Hoagies shirts set aside for the commander-in-chief and first lady Jill Biden. Their names, along with a smiley face, are written on the bag in a playful-yet-dignified cursive.
First Published: November 10, 2024, 10:30 a.m.
Updated: November 10, 2024, 8:52 p.m.
