MCCONNELLSBURG, Pennsylvania — One hundred eighty-two miles from the Ohio state line and 172 miles from the entrance to the Philadelphia neighborhood of Fishtown sits this tiny Fulton County borough in a 2-mile-wide valley between Tuscarora Mountain and Meadow Grounds Mountain.
Across Pennsylvania , the residents' biggest concerns are often ones not discussed by the national press or the candidates running for office with the urgency residents desire.
Inflation remains a top concern with voters across the political spectrum. It is a persistent problem that has lingered since 2022, when the average rate of inflation hit a 40-year high of 8%, four times the Federal Reserve's 2% target rate. Even in recent months, fundamentals such as grocery prices have not gone down. They just haven't gone up as fast as they did in 2022. The trip to the grocery store is still painful, with the state ranking the highest nationally for food cost increases.
What irritates voters — again, on both sides of the aisle — is when the national press and the White House tell them inflation has gone down, implying that costs have gone down. People keep telling experts the high cost of food is crushing them, yet for some reason, these experts keep ignoring them.
The latest survey conducted by CNBC-SurveyMonkey showed that about two-thirds, 65%, of adults said inflation is the main driver of their financial stress. The same amount of people in that survey are living paycheck to paycheck , with nearly half feeling as though they are in a worse financial situation than five years ago.
Necessities outside of groceries have also gotten worse. Philadelphia residents saw their average premium costs for car insurance jump 154% from 2023 to 2024. So, if you were paying $1,872 a year in 2023, you are now paying $4,752, according to a Bankrate report.
Homeowners' insurance also spiked an average of 12% nationwide last year, increasing more this year. Price hikes such as these limit people's ability to make the necessary repairs or investments their homes require. And if you want to fulfill the ultimate American dream and purchase a modest home, according to Zillow, the typical salary required nationwide for homeownership has jumped from $59,000 in 2020 to $106,500. That is a whopping 61% increase.
Just for perspective, the median household income in Pennsylvania is $72,627, and in Fulton County, it is $63,153, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, making the dream of homeownership out of reach for many middle-class people.
And to get from one place to another, unless you live in a large metropolitan city and have access to public transportation, a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.89 in Pennsylvania, or at least it was when I was driving across the state last week.
The other big problem on voters' minds is the crisis at the border and all that comes with it. First, there is the unknown, meaning the hundreds of thousands of single young males coming across from a spectrum of countries and disappearing into our nation.
Some are men such as the eight suspected terrorists from Tajikistan with possible Islamic State ties who were arrested in New York, Los Angeles, and, yes, here in Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, who came to the United States through the southern border, with at least one of the men using the CBP One app, created by the Biden administration, allowing illegal migrants to book appointments to claim asylum.
Or men like the two illegal Venezuelan migrants, Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, and Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, who allegedly bound 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, assaulted her for hours, then strangled her and dumped her body in a bayou.
The list goes on.
There is also the drug trafficking, and the stolen guns that go along with it, coming across the porous border. The meth and fentanyl make their way to Akron, Ohio, before heading all points east.
These drugs and guns find their way into not just the big cities in the state but also small towns like this one, where a routine traffic stop in February eventually led to officers finding a Taurus .45 ACP handgun, two .45 ACP magazines, 81 rounds of .45 ACP ammunition, a stolen Taurus 9 mm pistol, one 9 mm magazine, 135 rounds of 9 mm ammunition, a Hi-Point .380 pistol, a single .380 magazine, 52 rounds of .380 ammunition, 4.1 ounces of suspected methamphetamine, three digital scales, two drug pipes, one ledger, seven cellphones, four SD cards, a micro SD adapter, a spare SIM card, a flash drive, a Yeti false can containing the SD cards, two soft pistol cases, and a false dictionary safe containing the meth.
According to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, an average of 14 Pennsylvanians die every day from overdoses, and available data suggest the death toll will only continue to rise.
In April, a mother, father, grandmother, and the grandmother's "friend" were charged in a 2-year-old toddler's death in bucolic Somerset County when autopsy and toxicology results showed the boy died from "multiple drug intoxication" after ingesting fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, and xylazine, according to the district attorney.
The Drug Enforcement Administration notes that illicit fentanyl and meth are smuggled into the U.S. through Mexico, not daily but by the minute, and easily distributed across the country.
Finally, voters worry about the societal decay in our state's big cities of Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, where elaborate homeless camps have popped up — camps that also have added to increased drug trafficking, petty crime, and violence.
Earlier this month in Pittsburgh, a homeless woman, unprovoked, attacked a young woman in downtown Pittsburgh, grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her into the middle of a busy street, punching and kicking. It was an assault caught on video. Despite the vicious and violent attack, no one came to the victim's aid on the busy downtown Pittsburgh street.
Pennsylvania will play an oversized role in the election results in November. The onus of understanding what is on its residents' minds heading into Thursday's debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump is on each candidate.
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The man going into Thursday's debate who is surrounding himself with people in touch with what is important to voters, or the man himself who is in touch with solving those problems and can articulate it with empathy but also conviction, will be the man who can meet the moment.
When both men running hold high disapproval ratings, depending on their shortcomings, voters told me that meeting that moment is the requirement they demand to earn their vote.
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