Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Zebulon Oct. 23. (Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
President-elect Donald Trump appears to have improved his margins in a vast majority of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, and as of Wednesday afternoon is set to flip a few counties he lost in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump led Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s candidate for president, in 58 Pennsylvania counties as of Wednesday afternoon, according to unofficial returns. In the 2020 presidential election, Trump won 54 counties in Pennsylvania when he lost to Democrat Joe Biden by just over 80,000 votes.
The four counties where Trump is leading today but lost in 2020 are Bucks, Erie, Monroe, and Northampton.
All vote counts are still unofficial.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Trump leads Harris by 512 votes, or 0.1%, in Bucks County with more than 95% of votes tallied. During the previous election Trump lost this county to Biden by 17,345 votes, or 4.3%.
If Trump holds on to his razor-thin lead in Bucks County, it would be the first time that a Republican candidate for president has won there since George H.W. Bush did so in 1988.
Trump leads Harris by 3% in Northampton County, situated in the Lehigh Valley and widely viewed as the best bellwether in Pennsylvania, with over 95% of results in. During the 2020 election, Biden carried the county by 3%.
Northampton County was the only county in the state in the 2020 election where all of the candidates for statewide office won.
During Trump’s successful bid for the White House in 2016, he also carried Northampton County by a slim margin, flipping it red to blue from the previous presidential election.
Erie County also is viewed as one of the best bellwethers in Pennsylvania. Trump leads Harris by 1.5% in the county with over 95% of the results tallied. Biden won this county by 1% in the 2020 election.
Trump also won Erie County during his 2016 campaign, flipping it from the 2012 presidential contest when Barack Obama beat Republican Mitt Romney.
Monroe County in the Poconos has also appeared to go to Trump in the 2024 election. He leads by 1.1% over Harris in that county with over 95% of votes counted, while Biden carried Monroe County by 6.4% in 2020.
If Trump maintains his victory in Monroe County, it would be the first time a Republican candidate for president has won the county since 2004.
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