How Did Biden Win Pennsylvania? The Suburbs

 
It’s not getting a lot of play in the national conversation post election, but the suburbs were massively important to the Biden victory in Pennsylvania.

The Democrats’ share of the total votes cast in Philly actually decreased vs 2016, but this difference was more than made up for by the increase in blue votes in just one suburban town—Lower Merion.

All over the collar counties, turnout rose as towns shifted left. Biden widened the margin in towns Clinton won and flipped or made big inroads in affluent, predominantly white towns that Trump won in 2016.

In the end, these counties—Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Bucks—gave Biden a 293,000-vote margin over Trump in a state that Biden won by less than 81,000 votes.

It’s heartening to see how poorly Trump’s overtly racist appeals played in these counties. Biden will “destroy the suburbs” Trump said repeatedly, meaning open up affordable housing to those lower on the income scale.

There’s a lot of political dissension in the hinterlands and plenty of voters who may swing back red in future presidential contests, but at least the most nakedly demagogic appeal fell flat among its exact target audience.

It may even do fair housing advocates a favor, as his politicizing of zoning and housing issues forces the issue into people’s consciousness. Hypocrisy around affordable housing will be a tougher position to maintain; we are already seeing the effect of this in shifting attitudes in California, and local NIMBYS in my neck of the woods seem chastened, at least for the time being.