Trump is causing a quandary for the due paying Union members.
Via The Guardian:
The Ohio river valley was once a foundation of the American economy, and of the Democratic party.
For decades, coal- and steel-producing areas in south-east Ohio and south-west Pennsylvania voted Democrat. Union workers, supporting the party of organized labor, counted on steady and well-paid jobs.
But the US coal industry has been unable to survive major shifts in the world economy and steel has been subject to mechanization. In recent years, those steady jobs have disappeared.
This has turned the region into ripe territory for Donald Trump. In the Pennsylvania Republican primary, the billionaire won a crushing victory, sweeping the Appalachian part of the valley. In Ohio, the valley was the only area he won against the state’s governor and favorite son, John Kasich.
On Tuesday, Trump made campaign stops in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania and Belmont County, Ohio, areas that went Democratic even in the Reagan landslide of 1984 but were lost by Barack Obama in 2012.
Trump has geared his message to voters in such counties. On Tuesday, in a policy speech at a scrap metal facility south of Pittsburgh, he pledged to pull out of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement and potentially the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) as well.
Against a backdrop of bales of aluminum, Trump said he could bring back manufacturing jobs. The loss of such jobs was not “some natural disaster”, he said, “it is politician-made disaster.
“It is the consequence of a leadership class that worships globalism over Americanism … Our politicians took away from the people their means of making a living and supporting their families.”
Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator and two-time presidential candidate, told the Guardian that Trump was well positioned in south-west Pennsylvania, capable of winning Democrats to his cause.
“I think he’ll do exceptionally well because he’s not your typical Republican candidate, Santorum said. “He’s not an orthodox candidate by any stretch of imagination and that allows a lot of folks who have Ds next to their name in south-west Pennsylvania to feel like the Republicans don’t even like him, and [say] ‘I’m OK voting for him.’”
Santorum said Trump’s biggest challenge would not be wooing Democrats but getting “our Republican base solidifying and supporting” in the coming months.