I keep both my doors locked. Rob McDonnell clears off a table in his family's restaurant, McDonnell's, in Carbondale, Pa. Amanda Fuerstenberg and her mother, Maria Lawler, in Carbondale, Pa. David Mitchko with boxes of Trump campaign signs in his garage in Olyphant, Pa., on July 31, 2020. “I’m honestly amazed at myself that I haven’t switched yet,” Taylor said in an interview in late July.

Residents proudly boast that Carbondale helped launch the Industrial Revolution. But he has proceeded cautiously elsewhere, wary of a rebound. "With few options remaining to revive a virus-stalled economy, Trump has placed almost all of his hopes on states reopening for a growth rebound by Thursday's visit was Trump's 18th to Pennsylvania since assuming the presidency, an indication of how central the state is to his election prospects. Carbondale is one of many small towns in Pennsylvania that were long Democratic strongholds before Republicans made big gains in recent years.

Then you have a lot of people who are under- or unemployed,” said Rob McDonnell, the owner of McDonnell’s restaurant. I never thought in 2020 that it would be like this, we would be racially profiled. Interested in how Pennsylvania is shaping the 2020 election? “They call me fat racist,” Mitchko said, gesturing across the street to the house where Black Lives Matter and Mexican flags hung outside. There’s still a family-owned bakery and restaurant, a coal-themed hotel, a YMCA, and an antiques shop. We just registered Republican and we’re gonna vote.’ ” Taylor, who plans to vote for Trump, acknowledges the president has stoked racism. But even Biden supporters are nervous.

“The Democrats, they’ve just gone wild.” Carbondale has endured its share of mockery over the years, slapped with the nickname “Garbagedale” as corruption scandals and weird crime stories made regional news. If we didn't do any testing we would have very few cases," he said, adding later: "Could be that testing's, frankly, overrated.

"We're all working hard. “Unless it’s on Facebook and then it’s just people attacking one another.” While the town was settled by different immigrant groups working together in the mines and on the railroads, they lived on different sides of town “My heart hurts for the minorities in this town because I don’t feel like they’re treated properly,” Fuerstenberg said. If Trump wins here in 2020, he has a great shot at retaking the state of Pennsylvania, and at recapturing the White House, political analysts say. The people want to get on with their lives. Are you stupid?’ ” Truman said at McDonnell’s restaurant, wearing an American flag face mask. Olyphant, like Carbondale, is a former coal town where Democrats are losing voters, including Mitchko. She thinks Biden “should” win Lackawanna, “but I don’t think it’s a given.” Frank Truman, a retired social studies teacher, thinks there are a lot of silent Biden voters in Carbondale. You can't do that. Lawler volunteers planting flowers and trees around town, but getting people involved has become harder, she said: As politics have become more divided, so has the town.

"We've got to get your governor in Pennsylvania to start to open up here," Trump said. Carbondale is one of many small towns in Pennsylvania that were long Democratic strongholds before Republicans made big gains in recent years. The Trump campaign gave him more than 14,000, which he distributes out of his garage. Taylor said Trump connected with people here who felt looked down upon. "The Democrats are moving slowly, all over the USA, for political purposes. “I’m just sorry I didn’t wake up soon enough to vote for [Trump] the first time,” said Mazza, who sat out the 2016 election.

In nearby Olyphant, Dave Mitchko’s home has become a warehouse for people to pick up Trump signs in Lackawanna County. “If he was crossing the street, I wouldn’t cross it to say hello to him,” said Nancy Free, a former editor of the Carbondale News who now works at the Gentex plant. "And he sought to explain how much of his workday the virus had consumed, telling workers who work from dawn to dusk at the distribution plant that he, too, was pulling long days. RealClearPolitics - Election 2020 - Pennsylvania: Trump vs. Biden “I really feel like I live in Alabama now,” she said. Rogan pointed to immigration and trade as issues that have particularly motivated people to switch parties.

They’ve moved so far left and it seems like it’s all about getting as many votes as possible, not about being the party of the working class.” This (technically) Democratic mayor of a traditionally Democratic town off the I-81 corridor has shifted right along with Carbondale, Lackawanna County, and “We were always a Democratic town, always,” said Lorraine Tomaine, 73, as she left a park where she’d gathered for a book club meeting.