EXTON, Pa. — Another Pennsylvania county has flipped from blue to red just six weeks ahead of the high-stakes presidential election.
New statistics show the Republican Party with 87,415 registered voters in Luzerne County compared with 87,332 registered Democrats.
Luzerne County GOP chairman Gene Ziemba says his party’s newfound 83-vote advantage marks the culmination of a trend that began nearly a decade ago.
“We are successful because the Republican message is getting out,” Ziemba told The Post. “That message is we are the party of the people.”
Republicans in Luzerne County trailed Democrats in total registration by more than 33,000 voters in 2016 and nearly 19,000 voters in 2020.
Despite this deficit, former President Donald Trump carried the county both times — a fact that fuels Ziemba’s faith in Trump to win it a third time.
“We’re not gonna just win, we’re gonna smoke ’em,” Ziemba said of the GOP’s chances there this year.
The county, whose seat is Wilkes-Barre, was a center of coal mining and manufacturing. But it’s rebounding from the loss of those industries with a growing warehousing sector.
Luzerne County follows Bucks County in flipping red, which Republicans in the latter — a swing county that includes many affluent Philadelphia suburbs — achieved back in July.
Luzerne is not considered a swing county like Bucks and some others across eastern Pennsylvania, but its election administration record has raised some eyebrows around the country.
Following the lack of available paper ballots in the 2022 midterms, two disenfranchised voters sued the county and are still hoping to settle the case.
With much greater turnout expected this year, Ziemba is “very concerned” that similar issues could affect the presidential election — which he says occurred “all over” the county in 2020.
“I will have my people at the ready to literally zoom pieces of paper anywhere in the county,” Ziemba said of his Election Day preparation.
GOP congressional candidate and Pittston native Rob Bresnahan also cheered his home county’s voter registration trend.
“The people of northeastern Pennsylvania have made it clear they are sick and tired of being taken for granted by the modern-day Democratic Party, which would be unrecognizable to the likes of Bill Clinton, JFK, and FDR,” Bresnahan, who is challenging Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, told The Post.
“This is a party that has prioritized open borders and crippling economic policies over safe communities and affordable everyday necessities,” Bresnahan added.
