It was love at first sight when Ellen Matis pulled as much as this small Pennsylvania borough on a dreary winter day virtually eight years in the past. The street into city curved alongside the creek after which climbed uphill to a historic sq. the place she chatted with regulars over beers on the native pub.
“This is where we need to live,” she determined. Matis’ sister-in-law, who grew up within the space, was shocked. She remembered Bellefonte as a sleepy place with vacant storefronts and a drug drawback so infamous that folks generally overdosed in entrance of the courthouse.
However Matis, 33, noticed potential within the city’s quaint brick buildings and scenic foothold within the Allegheny Mountains only a quick drive from Pennsylvania State College. She settled in, began a social media advertising firm and had two daughters along with her husband.
“People are excited for change and what the future holds,” Matis stated.
Matis’ journey to Bellefonte is one small measure of a bigger evolution that’s reshaping the politics of Centre County, which is residence to about 160,000 folks in the midst of Pennsylvania, and will tilt this yr’s intently fought presidential election.
The realm has lengthy been divided between the liberal college city of State Faculty, which anchors the area, and the conservative hamlets that encompass it. However now the blue dot is increasing as college-educated folks unfold all through Centre County, drawn by the decrease price of dwelling, extra relaxed way of life and financial growth that has breathed new life into depleted blue-collar communities.
A school diploma means extra Democratic voters
Final yr, 47.6% of county residents had a four-year faculty diploma or extra, up from 39.4% a decade in the past. As a result of schooling ranges have a tendency to trace partisan affiliation, Democrats have an rising edge in part of the state that has traditionally swung backwards and forwards between the 2 events. Whereas by no means assured, the shift means Democratic nominee Kamala Harris might run up margins in small cities removed from the massive cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, which historically get way more consideration from presidential campaigns.
Harris’ potential power right here displays an ongoing tectonic realignment in American politics, with Republicans increasing their outreach to the working class and Democrats relying extra on upwardly cellular, college-educated folks.
In Centre County, which means Republican nominee Donald Trump stays interesting to voters who really feel like their communities haven’t benefited from the world’s modifications. However locations like Bellefonte are trending blue, backing Joe Biden 4 years in the past after supporting Trump 4 years earlier than that, and voters with extra optimistic views, like Matis, are lining up behind Harris.
“She makes you feel hopeful,” Matis stated. “I want a clean slate.”
The altering demographics in Centre County have already had an influence on native politics. Though management of the board of commissioners used to change each election, it’s been reliably Democratic for nearly a decade.
The county’s leaders are additionally pursuing a brand new growth plan that’s supposed to diversify its financial system past the college and appeal to much more folks to the area.
“We have that solid rock in Penn State,” stated Mark Higgins, chair of the county board of commissioners. “This is more than just Penn State now.”
A number of accommodations are slated to open within the coming years. There’s a brand new hospital and one other one is increasing. The inhabitants is anticipated to extend whereas Pennsylvania is dropping residents total. There are recent sights like arts festivals and an Ironman triathlon.
Higgins stated Centre County’s progress is partially fueled by “boomerangs,” that means individuals who grew up within the space or went to highschool at Penn State after which transfer again to boost their household there.
“It’s Wobegon,” he stated, “except it’s real.”
Very like different areas of the nation, inflation and the rising price of dwelling have been challenges, however the influence is felt in a different way. People who find themselves weary of high-priced huge cities are transferring to State Faculty, and individuals who can’t afford State Faculty are transferring to the encompassing space. It’s an financial chain response which means there are extra liberal-minded folks in additional cities across the county.
Persons are ‘boomeranging’ again to Centre County
Derek and Lauren Ishler are the quintessential boomerang couple. They met whereas attending Penn State, and lived for a number of years in Alexandria, Virginia. However earlier than having their two daughters, they relocated to State Faculty to be near their households.
“It’s grown but we still have that small-town feel,” Derek stated. “We’re happy here.”
Derek, 42, does monetary work for a logistics firm and Lauren, 41, is an elementary faculty trainer. Each are voting for Harris.
“What world do I want my kids to grow up in?” he requested. “One is fear, fear, fear. The other is, ‘hey, let’s work together.’”
On a current Friday night time, they have been in Bellefonte for an annual competition, the place native distributors served gourmand meals in a park below string lights whereas a band performed close by.
Stacy and Marc Counterman introduced their five-month-old son in his stroller. They moved to city three years in the past as a result of Marc, 31, bought a job as an educational adviser at Penn State.
They have been so excited that they purchased their home with out seeing it in particular person, apprehensive it might be snatched up earlier than they arrived. Each of them are voting for Harris.
“She’s fighting for families,” stated Stacy, 33, who works for an schooling nonprofit. “I’m hopeful she’ll fight for us.”
The ideological reshuffling is tied to State Faculty, the place the college is situated. Some residents relocate there from what they name “Trump country” to be nearer to the establishment and its tradition.
Alex Sterbenz, 31, got here from Burnham, which is within the subsequent county over.
“I figured it made sense to move here, instead of just coming up every weekend,” stated Sterbenz, who works in a neighborhood music retailer and performs honkytonk songs on his 2021 Gretsch White Falcon. He tries to not speak politics along with his family and friends again residence.
However State Faculty isn’t simply attracting folks; it’s additionally exerting a gravitational pull on surrounding cities.
Zeb Smoyer, 23, grew up in Bellefonte, the place he joined the Boy Scouts and hunted whitetail deer. Like a variety of youngsters, he couldn’t wait to get out of city. However after he went to school elsewhere in Pennsylvania and spent a while touring, he determined “Bellefonte is not a bad place.”
Now he lives there and works for an engineering firm, which he helps adjust to environmental rules because it lays pipes for turning farmlands into housing developments. Smoyer hasn’t made up his thoughts concerning the election, however he beforehand voted for Biden.
The realm is anchored by Penn State and its college students
Ezra Nanes, the Democratic mayor of State Faculty, stated there’s been extra overlap between his city and the encompassing space.
“You see an expansion of the university community and economy,” he stated. “It touches all parts of the county.”
Nanes’ personal journey to Centre County parallels the shifts within the area. A New York native, he was able to make a change in his life and utilized to Penn State’s MBA program. He moved to State Faculty 14 years in the past along with his spouse and child daughter.
They fell in love with the neighborhood and the pure atmosphere — “you can be in the mountains in 15 minutes,” he stated — and by no means left. They now have two kids. Nanes works at AccuWeather, a forecasting firm, and his spouse is a bodily therapist who began her personal enterprise centered on ladies’s well being.
Nanes was a delegate on the Democratic Nationwide Conference in Chicago, and he hopes “we can help run up the score here.”
“There’s a lot of focus on the big cities,” he stated. “But this is an important place if you want to win.”
One problem is participating Penn State’s expansive pupil inhabitants.
“We’re not exactly known for having a very deep political involvement, which is a shame,” stated Baybars Charkas, president of the Penn State Faculty Democrats. Charkas calls Penn State “probably the most powerful university in the United States at the current moment” given its dimension and site in a key battleground state. Roughly 48,000 college students are enrolled on the faculty’s State Faculty campus.
Graduate pupil Sydney Robinson began her personal group devoted to supporting Harris. Members make friendship bracelets to advertise their candidate and ship textual content messages to rally potential voters.
Robinson, who’s making use of to regulation faculty, is hopeful concerning the future.
“We just have so many opportunities,” she stated. “We’re at a crucial turning point in history, but it’s exciting.”
She’s earned the nickname “voter girl” as a result of she tries to all the time carry registration kinds; she will get three or 4 folks to enroll every week.
The Harris marketing campaign has 4 employees members in Centre County, together with a devoted campus organizer, and stated they’ve knocked on greater than 9,000 doorways and made greater than 80,000 telephone calls. They’re additionally promoting on radio stations to catch voters whereas commuting out and in of State Faculty.
Trump’s marketing campaign didn’t present figures on voter outreach. However Kush Desai, the Trump marketing campaign’s Pennsylvania spokesman, stated his workforce is attending faculty soccer tailgates and specializing in interesting to male voters to chop into Harris’ help inside the educated voters.
Among the effort focuses on the financial system, with the normal query of, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Desai additionally instructed that Democrats have shifted too far left on cultural points.
“I think there’s just a natural backlash here,” he stated, and males “are starting to chip away and come to our side instead.”
Ryan Klein, president of the Penn State Faculty Republicans, stated the campus leans left however conservatives aren’t as outnumbered as many assume. He pointed to sturdy turnout eventually month’s occasion with Trump supporter Charlie Kirk, who runs Turning Level, a company centered on rallying younger right-leaning voters.
On most days, “there aren’t a lot of people who want to go out of their way to proudly don the red hat,” Klein stated, however a whole bunch wore “Make America Great Again” paraphernalia that day.
The county’s financial progress stays uneven
Republicans are a lot stronger in a number of the rural areas surrounding State Faculty that haven’t seen the identical sort of growth as Bellefonte.
A type of locations is Philipsburg, with a postage-stamp-sized downtown the place vacant storefronts stay frequent.
“It has potential,” stated Brittney Tekely, 31. “It’s a cute little town. It just needs help.”
She saved up cash to start out her personal barbershop there whereas working as a stylist in the course of the day and in a Wal-Mart distribution warehouse at night time. Tekely painted and adorned the place herself with mannequin vehicles and different trinkets that she picked up at vintage shops. She even went all the best way to Niagara Falls to purchase an old style money register that dings loudly when opened. Her three canine — Digger, Roxie and Mister Skunk — come to work along with her and hand around in the again, the place they bark when somebody opens the entrance door.
However Tekely doesn’t see the identical care being put into the remainder of the city, saying, “There are buildings that no one is fixing up or tearing down.” She isn’t certain if she’ll vote this yr, and lots of of her prospects are vocal Republicans.
“They just go on and on and on,” Tekely stated. “You’ve got to keep your two cents to yourself.”
A few of them, she stated, “truly think if Trump becomes president again it will help the country and help prices.”
The city backed Trump over Biden 4 years in the past, and there’s much less of the optimism that characterizes Bellefonte’s renaissance.
Thomas Gette, 77, lives a number of blocks from downtown with a Trump signal on the curb exterior the entrance door. He’s retired after spending 4 many years because the supervisor of a neighborhood ironmongery shop, and he simply completed repainting his home.
Gette stated voting for the Republican candidate is “a no-brainer,” particularly with all of the considerations about uncontrolled migration.
“Something has got to give,” he stated, including that if Trump doesn’t win, “I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like.”
In Gette’s thoughts, modifications within the space have sapped the city of jobs and cash.
“There were mines everywhere and the railroads were everywhere,” Gette stated, and he’s apprehensive that the transition away from fossil fuels is going on too quick.
And now, how would he describe Philipsburg?
“Pretty stagnant,” he stated.
