The report shows the GOP has an opportunity to win over traditional Democratic voters in Pennsylvania.
Albert Eisenberg, a Republican consultant, has reported that the GOP has a unique opportunity to win over traditional Democratic voters in Pennsylvania.
Eisenberg is a principal at the messaging firm BlueStateRed. The firm released a report earlier this month that included several examples of voter shifts in Pennsylvania favorable to the GOP among Black, Hispanic, and Jewish voters. Precincts in Harrisburg were highlighted in the report.
“The next Republican voter in Pennsylvania is very likely to be Black or Hispanic,” he said in a recent interview.
He continued, “We need to make a concerted effort at the grassroots and at the messaging level to reach these voters on platforms where they get their information in their communities, and say, ‘We’re here and we actually care about you,’ and listen and acknowledge that we haven’t always showed up the right way and tell them what our plans are.”
Eisenberg described the disillusionment many Black, Hispanic, and Jewish voters are experiencing as Democrats shift to the far left. “The Democratic Party has ceded its messaging and branding and core, energy and focus to a very educated, elite portion of the party that represents maybe a third of it,” Eisenberg said.
The report found working-class voters “have felt abandoned” by the Democratic Party’s focus on issues such as transgender and abortion rights.
U.S. Representative Brendan Boyle of the Philadelphia area said in an interview, “Over the last decade, the Democratic Party has had a working-class voter problem. It started out as a white working-class voter problem and it has, as I’ve long feared, spread. It is not just a white working-class issue. It has now spread to the Latino working class and African American working class.”
Mitch Kates, executive director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, sides with last year’s election being an “anomaly”.
“The MAGA party has done everything from literally erasing Black Americans from history books to shutting down programs like Head Start, which will have an adverse effect on communities of color,” Kates said.
One of the examples included in Eisenberg’s report mentioned Black voting trends in Allison Hill, Harrisburg.
He describes a “death knell” for Democrats, featuring a lower voter turnout and a shift to the right. The report claims that Pennsylvania Democrats have seen a “catastrophic turnout plunge” since the 2012 presidential election.
Turnout in majority-Black Harrisburg precincts decreased by 3.2% over the last 12 years. The state’s total voter turnout increased by over 10%.
Allison Hill precincts moved between 10 to 17 percentage points more Republican since 2020, according to the report.
The report also points out a drop in Black voter turnout in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Chester.
Eisenberg says in his report, “Many black voters could be persuaded to vote Republican, but GOP campaigns and elected officials consistently leave voters on the table by failing to invest in tailored, well-messaged robust outreach.”
Kates said the Democratic Party is already working hard to keep voters and win over new ones in Pennsylvania.
“One of the things that we don’t do and will never do is take any constituency group for granted. We are going to earn the right to win their vote every election cycle,” he said.
In response to the report, Eisenberg said in a recent interview that the GOP must immediately begin outreach efforts to these constituencies.
“It’s going to take a lot of effort but the opportunity, if you look at the numbers, is obviously there,” he said.
