SALENA ZITO: Portraits of voters from three Pennsylvania bellwethers.
Portraits of voters offer a peek into the mood of electorally significant places. They don’t tell the whole story, but they do offer a glimpse into voter sentiment — and the sense of place, community and opportunity that will drive their decision, as opposed to what happens on social media.
Every city should be so lucky as to have a Kyle Bohrer — especially post-industrial cities like Erie, whose economy has had a bit of a bad run in the past few decades. This fourth-generation Erie resident’s motto references the city’s maritime history: “Don’t give up the ship.”
Mr. Bohrer has owned franchises of a logistics company called Unishippers since 2007. “That’s actually the job that pays the bills, he said. “Then I bought a meat market three years ago: Gordon’s Butcher and Market.”
Gordon’s wasn’t just any butcher shop: It was an icon, a mainstay, the heart of the community. For Mr. Bohrer, the purchase was sentimental and has become a labor of love.
When he bought it in October 2019, it was a 2,000-square-foot 50-year-old dilapidated but beloved butcher shop. “It was a neighborhood favorite, and I didn’t want see it go anywhere,” he said.
The father of three sold a chunk of his Unishippers group that year and went all in: Today it’s a 7,500 square foot, top-of-the-line meat market — with a restaurant called “Firestone,” a bar, a six pack and craft beer shop and a wine store called Paris’s Cap and Cork, all located in one building.
Mr. Bohrer — like most Pennsylvanians — has never lived anywhere else. He is rooted to his community and, despite Erie’s challenges, he wants to be part of making it better for the next generation. That sentiment is what will drive his vote come November, along with the impact inflation has had on his business, and his inability to find workers.
He considers his worldview moderate and pragmatic. His vote, he says, will reflect that, as well as the impact all of these things have had on his family and his community’s life.
“Prices for everything are still very high. Even though they’ve stopped climbing for the moment, they haven’t come down. The labor problem and people problem are still there. And the other thing people don’t talk about are our 401k’s — my father got beat up so bad this year in the market that he’s having to stay working for another year or so. He is going to keep going to hopefully see it turn around a little bit more, but yeah, it’s been a little bit, uneasy feeling, for sure,” he said.
Erie, like Luzerne, was a swing county in 2016. Voters here narrowly gave Donald Trump their support, then four years later, narrowly supported Joe Biden. Last year, for the first time in decades, they elected a Republican for county executive.
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