How will Centre County vote? Here’s a look at why residents support Biden or Trump

In 2016, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won Centre County by less than 2,000 votes, but the county’s 35,000 votes for Republican Donald Trump helped him win the state and the presidency.

This time around, eyes are once again on Pennsylvania, the battleground state where both Trump and his Democratic challenger, former vice president Joe Biden, have made regular stops for months. Centre County has also had visits from both campaigns — Donald Trump Jr. and Douglas Emhoff, husband of Biden’s running mate Sen. Kamala Harris — in the past two weeks.

A drive around the county shows a hodgepodge of campaign signs in support of both candidates. An expected 37,000 mail-in ballots and voters who head to the polls on Nov. 3 will determine if Centre County stays blue or goes red, but the Centre Daily Times reached out to voters across the area for a snapshot of how they’re using their vote and why.

Here’s a look at some voters and the issues they say matter most:

Catherine F. Smith, 78, of Spring Mills

Properly funding climate change initiatives and reforming immigration policies are two of the most pressing issues this election, Smith said.

Trump’s stance on immigration is “inhumane” and “disastrous,” she said.

“I’ve followed the Democratic policies over the years on those two issues and neither Biden nor Harris is in the forefront of any of them, but they are open to the approaches that I think we need to take,” Smith said.

Biden also grades out better, Smith said, when it comes to health care, Medicare and Medicaid.

“We have had four years of policies, office holders and (an) administration that have really damaged fundamental democratic institutions that the country has been based on. They’ve been fairly systematically dismantled for the last four years,” Smith said. “I want to change that. I want to move away from that direction and back toward strengthening what we have, not tearing it down and not dividing us in the process. That’s the clear choice I think we have — which one of those ways do we want to go?”

Don Morgan, 72, of Snow Shoe

Morgan was quick to point out that his preferred candidate is “a little rough around the edges,” but feels Trump is better suited to “get things accomplished” — namely for veterans.

Immigration is also on the forefront for Morgan, and he applauded the president for his stance.

“It’s unfair to the people that did it correctly, I feel. I think President Trump is doing something about it,” Morgan said. “If you want to come to (the United States of) America, do it the right way.”

Robert Zeigler, 36, of Millheim

Zeigler, the Millheim Borough Council president, dropped his mail-in ballot in a secure drop box to cast his vote for Biden.

“I voted for Biden for a multitude of reasons,” Zeigler said. “Mainly, his stance on COVID-19, infrastructure and the environment. I also believe he can help reestablish more positive relations abroad which helps us with diplomacy and security.”

The most important issue for Zeigler is the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery, especially local recovery.

“This election marks a pivotal point in our history,” he said. “Simply put, we have a divisive president who likes to inflame and incite people and another candidate that wants us to have a sense of normalcy.”

Since Trump became president, Zeigler thinks partisanship among parties has worsened, adding that there hasn’t been “this much divisiveness in decades.”

Teresa Martin, 61, of Julian

Martin plans to vote in person for Trump because “he is not a career politician.”

“He kept his promises and actually does what we want,” she said.

When it comes to political issues, Martin is concerned about protecting the Constitution, the Second Amendment, lowering taxes and “support for business and capitalism,” she said.

Fred Wilder, 73, of Centre Hall

Wilder cast his vote by mail-in ballot and submitted it to one of the eight secure drop boxes located throughout Centre County. The first time he ever voted was in 1968 after serving in Vietnam.

“I voted for Biden because I want the country I served all of my adult life to survive as a democracy,” he said. “(The election) is significant to me because I have two autistic grandsons that deserve to live lives of dignity in a civilized society.”

Two of the issues Wilder is concerned about are the environment and caring for the elderly.

“My career as a land use planner makes me very aware of how serious human destruction of the only place we know life exists in the universe,” he said. “I think the economy of the 21st century will center around restoring the natural environment of the planet and caring for an increasingly aging population.”

Kristine Eng, 66, of Ferguson Township

Eng, the Centre County Republican Committee chairwoman, is voting for Trump because she believes in “one nation that values the rights and freedoms of the individual to live under limited government intervention.”

“I believe that each person should be allowed the freedom and opportunity to live as one chooses,” she said. “President Trump has demonstrated he has the same vision for America and Americans.”

She will cast her vote in person on Election Day.

Theresa Lafer, 74, of State College

The State College borough councilwoman voted for Biden in the primary. She finds him “honest enough and smart enough,” someone who will work with Republican leadership and not just with blue states.

She wouldn’t have voted for Trump, even if another Democrat was running. But she saw in Biden someone who will look beyond the stock market and someone who will help the middle class, regardless of people’s party.

“We need leadership that helps pull us together,” Lafer said. “I don’t want angry; I don’t want us vs. them. I don’t want red states and blue states.

“Biden might not be the most exciting person out there. But, based on his years in office, there is one thing that is true: He is a quiet voice of reason and responsibility. And we need that.”

Lafer believes COVID-19 is the biggest issue facing our country, and she’d like to see more help in the social services — providing more mental-health services, feeding children who go hungry and providing financial aide due to the coronavirus.

She hasn’t seen enough of that from Republicans, and she said Biden and the Democrats are a better fit because they’ve been trying to push through another stimulus bill for months, for example. Trump, she pointed out, has also said at various times the pandemic will eventually just disappear — words that don’t sit well with Lafer, whose husband suffers from an illness that puts him at high risk.

“For Trump to say COVID will disappear by Easter? It’s just a form of magical thinking,” Lafer said. “Magical thinking is not functional. Now, if you’re at Hogwarts, I suspect magical thinking might be effective.

“But we’re not.”

Wayne DeSarbo, 72, of Centre Hall

The retired Penn State professor, a registered independent, isn’t a single-issue voter.

He has voted for both Republicans and Democrats during his lifetime but, in this election, he said the choice is a simple one. And he finds the “left-wing agenda” far too extreme.

“I don’t like to see rioting in the street over purported issues of social injustice,” DeSarbo said. “I don’t want to have the fossil-fuel industry decimated. I don’t want to have open borders, and I don’t want to have free health care given to illegal aliens.”

DeSarbo was adamant he wasn’t just voting against Democrats. He agrees with Trump on a lot of issues, and he praised Trump’s ability to keep his promises and walk the walk.

“He’s not a politician, that’s a plus for me,” DeSarbo said. “I’m not a politician, and the fact that if you take a look at what he’s done with the economy, pre-COVID at least, that’s very impressive.”

DeSarbo wasn’t enamored “with the COVID thing,” but pointed out there were more cases of the swine flu under the Obama administration than there’s been COVID-19 cases under Trump.