DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Thirty miles north of Philadelphia, luxury subdivisions like Colonial Commons interrupt dairy farms, century-old stone roadside homes and the winding Neshaminy Creek that flows between Doylestown and Newtown. Both towns were once rural outposts that have turned into fashionable commercial, dining and shopping centers.
This is one of the most closely watched areas in American politics. President Joe Biden boosted his numbers in Bucks County, which includes both towns, on his way to ousting Pennsylvania from Republican Donald Trump four years ago, winning by a significant margin among the state’s suburban women.
Biden and his allies are trying to replicate Democrats’ success this year with suburban women and signal they can win over a small number of Republican women who may oppose a second Trump presidency. But from dozens of interviews this month in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County, there was little evidence that traditional Republicans were willing to abandon Trump, the presumptive Republican Party nominee, in significant numbers.
“I feel like I should vote for the policy, not the person,” said Lynn Natale, a 62-year-old interior designer. While Natale criticized Trump’s rhetorical style — “It’s like he doesn’t have the words to speak directly to women” — she said she supported Trump’s ideas on the economy and immigration.
“The alternative is unacceptable,” she said.
About a dozen volunteers gathered at Biden’s campaign office in Bucks County on a recent sunny Saturday afternoon. The group spread through the politically mixed neighborhoods around Doylestown, knocking on doors of both registered Republican voters and those not affiliated with either major party, asking them about issues that mattered most to them.
In addition to the Biden campaign’s reach into politically mixed and Republican-voting neighborhoods of Bucks County, conservative groups such as Women4Us and Republican Voters Against Trump are mobilizing in suburban Philadelphia in hopes of peeling away Republican voters.
Stephanie Sharp of Women4Us pointed out that former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley received 22% of the vote in Philadelphia’s four-county bloc during April’s Republican presidential primary. That translated into 42,032 votes that Haley won six weeks after she suspended her campaign, in an apparent protest vote against Trump.
“The closed Republican primaries in Pennsylvania have shown that there is a need for something better,” said Sharp, whose group plans to reach Republican women in the most competitive states for the presidential campaign, including Pennsylvania.
“Republican women are fed up with our votes being taken for granted,” Sharp added.
Trump’s team is convinced that inflation and illegal immigration will drive some suburban women to the former president, who is holding a rally in Philadelphia on Saturday.
“President Trump speaks to women as he discusses the skyrocketing costs of rent, groceries and gas in Biden’s America,” said Trump’s national press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “President Trump speaks to women when he talks about the immigrant crime that has ravaged suburban communities.”
According to AP VoteCast, a comprehensive survey of voters nationwide, about 6 in 10 suburban women in Pennsylvania voted for Biden in 2020, while 4 in 10 voted for Trump. But this year, many suburban women are unhappy about facing the same confrontation, a trend that public opinion polls show applies to Americans in general.
A recent survey of female voters by KFF found that about six in 10 suburban women are dissatisfied with their chances of becoming president. About half of those who identify as Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party said the main reason they are unhappy with Biden was related to his age or his mental and physical health.
Much smaller numbers of suburban women pointed to other issues, such as the conflict between the Israelis and Hamas, the economy or his performance as president.
Suburban female voters were generally much more likely to say Biden respects women, compared to Trump. About seven-in-ten suburban women voters said Biden highly respects women, compared to only about three-in-ten suburban women who said that about Trump. Nearly seven in 10 suburban women say Trump doesn’t respect women much or at all.
But when asked about the most important issue for their 2024 vote, suburban women most likely pointed to inflation.
Terry Sykes, the owner of the boutique and spa on Newtown’s quaint State Street, says the local economy is most important to her.
It flourished, she said, during the Trump administration, “like turning on a light switch.”
“To be clear, all of Trump’s policy positions support the way I live my life,” Sykes, 61, said. “I mean, he is who he is. And women need to get over it. Because it’s all about policy and the health of our economy.”
Anusha Bela, who worked from a laptop at a coffee shop in bustling downtown Doylestown, had been a more fervent Biden supporter early on but became disillusioned with what she saw as his slow response to Israel’s violence in Gaza.
‘And would I prefer someone younger? Yes. Would I prefer someone who seems to have newer ideas? Yes,” said the 40-year-old sports business consultant wearing a Philadelphia Phillies cap.
“But Trump is a danger to democracy,” she said.
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Associated Press writer Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.
