BUCKS COUNTY, Pa.—Around 1 a.m. on Wednesday morning, just as the hundred or so remaining attendees at the Republican watch party in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, were starting to slump in their chairs, gasps spread through the room like wildfire. Young men stood up with their fingers thrust toward a giant screen of Fox News blaring the message: “Projection: Trump will win Pennsylvania.”
“I am over the moon,” said Betsy Cross, a 60-year-old campaign volunteer, beaming—even though she’d been up since before sunrise to help place Donald Trump signs outside of polling places. “I’m crying, I’m so happy.”
Like nearly every county in the state, Bucks County—dubbed the “swingiest of all swing counties in the swingiest of all swing states” by Democratic governor Josh Shapiro—shifted right Tuesday night. It’s the purplest county of the ones that surround Philadelphia, but it hasn’t gone red since George H.W. Bush took the county in 1988. But lately, signs of change have been brewing. This summer, the number of registered Republicans in the county surpassed that of Democrats for the first time in nearly two decades.
