RealClearPennsylvania Articles

Watch Gov. Josh Shapiro closely during his annual budget address on Tuesday. The governor will lay out his vision for the upcoming year – undoubtedly full of big ideas and pretentious rhetoric. Yet, what will be most interesting is whether Shapiro addresses the elephant in the room: Pennsylvania’s $3.6 billion structural deficit. This deficit isn’t new; the governor has ignored and expanded it. During Shapiro’s last budget address, he didn’t even mention the word “deficit.” Instead, he proposed a 7.1% increase in General Fund spending...

In Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and Allegheny County are the top two counties based on population. But in terms of a populous suburban area, Bucks County isn’t far behind in size. This past year, the county has made its share of political headlines, from culture wars in school districts to the political realignment occurring in Lower Bucks. Bucks has been pivotal in statewide electoral politics. Trump barely lost the county in 2016, lost it in 2020, and then proved victorious in 2024. Bucks is also home of the famous McDonald’s campaign stop, where Trump was salting and slinging...

Gov. Josh Shapiro seems concerned about Pennsylvanians’ energy bills – and rightfully so. The average Pennsylvania electricity bill has increased by more than 30% in the past four years. But rather than address the root causes of high energy prices, Shapiro prefers the blame game. The governor recently filed a federal complaint against PJM Interconnection LLC, claiming the regional transmission organization was gouging ratepayers. Assuredly, PJM is no saint, but neither is Shapiro. The governor has done nothing to address energy affordability and the underlying...

Heading into Election Day 2024, the mainstream media breathlessly hyped suburbanites as the voters who will determine the next president of the United States. “Ground zero,” “the whole deal,” and “mini blue wall” were the terms used by pundits to emphasize the importance of suburban voters. But now that the dust has settled, it appears none of that prognostication was accurate.  Recent data released by the Pennsylvania Department of State indicate that Pennsylvania’s suburban voters didn’t decide the 2024 presidential election, as has been...

“Politicians are actors, too, don’t you think?” It was a simple question, posed by child actor-turned-political diplomat Shirley Temple Black, likely with no ill intent. But many years later, it summarizes Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who uses his “get shit done” script to grab big-screen attention while behind the scenes, his indecisiveness and ineffectiveness as chief executive are putting jobs and opportunity at risk.  Pittsburgh is the latest – albeit not the only – stage for Shapiro’s hollow...

In Pennsylvania, Northampton County voting patterns typically determine how the Keystone State will go when it comes to presidential electoral politics. That trend remained consistent and proved true again in 2024. For the second time in three elections, Donald Trump won Pennsylvania and the presidency, as Northampton County, which consists largely of Bethlehem and Easton, decided to support the Republican nominee. Bethlehem is partially Northampton County and partially Lehigh County, heading from west to east. As you travel through Northampton County, you will see how it quickly goes from...

Hispanic voters in Pennsylvania were not just consequential but decisive in 2024, shifting by double digits toward Republicans and showing up at higher rates than in prior elections. Except for North Carolina, where district lines were redrawn, the Keystone State was the only one in the nation that flipped two congressional districts from Democrat to Republican. State house and Senate districts with significant Latino communities moved to the right, and one seat in diverse Northeast Philadelphia even went Republican, stunning state Democrats. The 14% statewide shift of Hispanic voters toward...

Pennsylvania is on its way to becoming a red state. In 2024, for the first time in modern history, more Republicans voted than Democrats in a Pennsylvania presidential election. Republicans delivered a dramatic margin of victory for President Donald Trump, which spared the nation the agony of a protracted recount.  Even more auspicious results for the GOP happened down ballot. In what was unimaginable to most pundits, for example, GOP challenger Dave McCormick beat the odds to defeat three-term U.S. Sen. Bob Casey by a close, but decisive margin. Meantime, the red wave catapulted a...

Pennsylvania is on its way to becoming a red state. In 2024, for the first time in modern history, more Republicans voted than Democrats in a Pennsylvania presidential election. Republicans delivered a dramatic margin of victory for President Donald Trump, which spared the nation the agony of a protracted recount.  Even more auspicious results for the GOP happened down ballot. In what was unimaginable to most pundits, for example, GOP challenger Dave McCormick beat the odds to defeat three-term U.S. Sen. Bob Casey by a close, but decisive margin. Meantime, the red wave catapulted a...

The new year is always a great opportunity to shed vices like smoking and binge eating. For state and local lawmakers, their guilty pleasure tends to involve overspending and sticking taxpayers with the bill. If Pennsylvania lawmakers thought to quit this dirty habit in 2025, they are off to a bad start. Four of Pennsylvania’s five most populous counties can expect increased property taxes. From Cumberland County’s modest 4% hike to Lackawanna’s whopping 33% tax increase, more than 5 million Pennsylvanians will pay higher county taxes in 2025. Allegheny County will see the...

What a year for Pennsylvania Republicans. Not since Willy Wonka’s Grandpa Joe jumped out of his sick bed and danced has there been such an unforeseen turnaround. They entered the year 446,566 registered voters behind the Democrats. Their presidential nominee had carried the state only once since 1988. They had not defeated an incumbent Democratic U.S. senator since 1994. They had not elected a Republican as attorney general since 2008. They were being outperformed by about 4-1 in mail-in voting. And they hadn’t elected a new GOP state senator in Philadelphia since Ronald...

Like so much these days – too much – the acquisition deal between U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel has gone to the courts. President Joe Biden has blocked what many of the parties involved have described as a “friendly” takeover. The president contends that the acquisition puts national security at risk, a dubious claim given that his chief advisors – the secretaries of Defense, State, and Treasury – seem to share none of his security concerns. Now both Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel are suing to block the president’s block, claiming in essence that Biden has...

Pittsburgh's relationship with decline is complicated. The city lost half its population after the steel industry collapsed in the 1970s and 1980s, yet has clung to relevance as a mini-hub for medicine, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Now, 70 years after scores of regional steelworkers quite literally fought the Japanese in World War II, Japan's Nippon Steel offered $14.9 billion to save what’s left of U.S. Steel. Echoing former First Lady Nancy Reagan’s "War on Drugs" slogan, President Biden just said no. The name itself carries weight that other corporate identities...

President Joe Biden shocked the financial markets, his own national security leadership and America’s alliance partners with a ham-fisted decision to block Nippon Steel’s takeover of U.S. Steel last Friday. Nippon’s bid has been on ice since it was announced last year, held up by the vagaries of a presidential election that largely centered on pocketbook issues for voters. Such electoral machinations were always going to be present in the Japanese acquisition of a dying yet iconic American steelmaker. Indeed, both Biden...

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is on the cusp of shaping the commonwealth’s economic future. The court will soon rule on the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s entry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the multistate cap-and-trade program that would impose a new energy tax on Pennsylvania power producers, impacting consumers’ electric costs. The state’s top court will decide whether the Keystone State prospers from energy abundance or falls victim to energy poverty. Pennsylvania’s membership with RGGI was problematic from the onset. Former Gov....

I grew up during the last great era of the newspaper, the decade or so after the end of World War II. From then until the 1990s, when the computer began to render the daily paper irrelevant, I was a confirmed newspaper reader. In my house in those days, we took in three papers. My uncle bought the Bulldog edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer every night around 7; the Bulletin was delivered in the afternoon around 3:30 and my grandfather, who worked nights on the city’s piers, brought home the Daily News. On the weekend, we got both the Sunday Inquirer and Bulletin after it took over the...

In a state where manufacturing has long been a cornerstone of the economy, recent actions taken by some of Pennsylvania's political leaders reveal a concerning disconnect between rhetoric and reality. Specifically, the stark contrast in the way Gov. Josh Shapiro and his team have handled two separate opportunities to protect crucial industrial jobs in the state highlights an administration that appears to be missing the forest for the trees. The unsuccessful attempt last month by his Attorney General, Michelle Henry, to prevent the closure of the 132-year-old Anchor Hocking glass...

June gleefully shouted to anyone within earshot, “We are going to make history tonight!” On election night, the Kamala Harris staffer was beyond jubilant. On route to an election party, she howled what had become a victory mantra to every passerby “We are going to make history tonight!” Speaking to me on the condition of anonymity, “June” confided “the vibes were very good. We were hitting and surpassing our expected turnout.” She stopped short, sighed and recalled, “Around 9:30 it turned. It was very sudden. We were all...

Donald Trump won the pivotal swing-state of Pennsylvania for a second time in three elections and the improvements he made in the collar counties of Philadelphia cannot go unmentioned. Trump was able to flip Bucks County, but it’s also important to note the gains he made in Montgomery, Chester and Delaware counties. In Delaware County, specifically, the traction he gained with working class voters, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, shows you the connection he made with blue collar workers in the steady blue precincts. In order to understand the gains made by Trump, I spoke with...