“PublicSource is an independent nonprofit newsroom serving the Pittsburgh region. Sign up for our free newsletters.”
Donald Trump won Pennsylvania and, with it, the White House on Tuesday, shifting the state about 2 percentage points to the right compared to 2020.
Key to his win were shifts of more than 2 points in southeastern counties like Philadelphia, Chester and Montgomery; bellwether counties Erie and Northampton; and some southwestern counties including Fayette, Washington, Beaver and Lawrence.
The margin in Allegheny County stayed mostly unchanged, with Trump increasing his vote share by just 0.4 percentage points to 39.4% with 99% of precincts reporting.
Turnout in Allegheny dropped slightly, and with a small number of votes still outstanding, Vice President Kamala Harris netted about 11,708 fewer votes in the county compared to President Joe Biden’s 2020 performance.
Explore full election results for the region here.
Harris slipped by a hair in the city of Pittsburgh, in a softer echo of Democratic slippage seen in other urban areas like New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. Trump won 21.56% of the Pittsburgh vote with 99% of the vote in, which is 0.72 points higher than his 2020 share.
Both candidates made modest gains in varying parts of the county map, with Harris consolidating support in many inner Pittsburgh suburbs, plus northern suburbs that have trended left in recent years, and Trump expanding his margins in farther-flung areas and eastern suburbs of Baldwin Borough and Turtle Creek.
Harris gained in affluent suburbs Upper St. Clair, Mt. Lebanon, Fox Chapel and Sewickley.
Just three municipalities swung more than 5 points in either direction — West Elizabeth and McDonald toward Trump and O’Hara toward Harris.
While Trump did not make major gains in terms of vote share in Allegheny County, he found good news in turnout. The Democratic-leaning county was slightly down from its 2020 participation levels as of midday Wednesday.
Overall, about 710,000 of Allegheny County’s 952,539 registered voters participated, or 74.6% with a small amount of votes left to tally. Turnout in 2020 was 77.1%.
And the precincts with turnout below the county’s average were clustered in liberal areas: Pittsburgh, McKeesport, Penn Hills, Wilkinsburg and other nearby suburbs were among the lowest participating municipalities in the county.
The highest turnout was in tiny Haysville, where 93% of 60 registered voters showed up. Among municipalities with at least 10,000 voters, Shaler led the way with 85% turnout. Harris narrowly carried both.
The lowest turnout was in McKees Rocks (51%).
Of the 10 highest turnout communities, five favored Trump. Of the 10 lowest, all favored Harris.
Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Jamie Wiggan.
This article first appeared on PublicSource and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
About Post Author
