Access to the Oval Office runs through a Dinor

WATERFORD, Pennsylvania — In and around this tiny Erie County borough in northwestern Pennsylvania , the handful of broad-windowed storefronts, generous sidewalks, and the gazebo located in the middle of the town square function quite nicely without much attention.

A favorite of my family on trips to Lake Erie was a backroad visit to Betty’s Dinor. Yes, it was spelled "dinor." Here in northwestern Pennsylvania, diners are almost always spelled "dinor." Why? Well, no one knows exactly why. The Erie Times speculated several years ago it might be a unique translation of “diner” or an advertising ploy to lure passersby.

Either way, it is a very, very Erie County thing, sort of like ox roast and pepperoni balls, that caught on generations ago and remained a local point of pride despite chiding from outsiders for spelling it wrong.

There is the legendary Lawrence Park Dinor in the town of that name, where you can smell the bacon coming from the griddle from the shiny chrome window from a block away. There is also the Gem City Dinor on West 12th Street, and there’s the very colorful Zodiac Dinor on State Street, continuing a tradition that has been going on here for well over 70 years that included Carl’s Dinor in the 1960s and the Sunshine Dinor in the 1950s, as well as Jimmy’s Dinor , Elm Street Dinor, and the Grove City Dinor, all of which sponsored local youth Little League teams for generations.

In short, the misspelling stuck; it became part of the culture; it is a point of pride and just one of those things that makes Erie unique that few outsiders recognize. Or, if they do notice it, they post on places such as the online forum Grammar Police and wonder if Erie, “Pennsylvania had gone completely mad” with this irrational behavior.

If you had to place in a nutshell the challenge for visiting reporters, analysts, pollsters, and strategists on both sides of the aisle, the spelling of “dinor,” or even frequenting one on a regular basis, is the baseline where almost all of them either don’t get who they are covering or how to earn their vote.

That is because they rarely know anyone from Erie. They rarely know what an Erie resident’s life experience has been or how many times those residents have seen a family member or a friend move away because of lack of opportunity.

They certainly don’t know that the city of Erie is the home of 17 miles of beautiful beaches, trails, and hiking, nor do they know that Erie is the home of the largest refugee population in the state and ninth in the country, most migrating and assimilating here from Kenya, Bosnia, the Congo, and Iraq, comprising roughly 20% of the city’s population.

When I interviewed Fidel Bahati , a refugee from Kenya, a couple of years ago, he had walked straight out of the Erie federal courthouse and into the offices of the Army Reserves to enlist.

“God Bless America,” Bahati had told me. “I am an American now, and I will now serve my country who has provided me so much opportunity to better myself.” Bahati went on to get his degree in electrical engineering at the Penn State Behrend campus in Erie and is now an electrical engineer.

The media also missed that this is an important wine county. Yes, wine. And other kinds of farming as well, and Erie was once a booming port city for industry that has slowly, painfully slipped away.

But when reporters come here many of those stories are missed. The people are misunderstood. Their connection to place is mischaracterized as unwilling to let go of the past, including by continuing to use the word “dinor” long after anyone knows why it was used.

Erie is one of 57 counties nationwide that voted for Donald Trump narrowly in the 2016 presidential election but Joe Biden narrowly in 2020. It is also one of only 25 counties that voted for Barack Obama twice, handily, then voted for Trump in 2016.

As I have written dozens of times before, it is not just the most important county in Pennsylvania in terms of election results in November; it is the most important county in the country.

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Located just a short drive — in the Appalachian midwest, a short drive is just around two hours — from Pittsburgh, the county is breathtaking, but the city is struggling. Sadly, it is the poorest ZIP code in the state, but the people and the traditions are worth listening to.

They might give you some sponge candy, if you are wise to enjoy it, and they may also take you to a dinor, not because it is a novelty but because the food is good and the people are equally wonderful. And you might learn why it is not the people who run the media or corporations or academia or government who will decide who the next president will be but instead the people who live here who hold the keys to the White House.