Election Day 2024 Live • Pennsylvania Capital-Star

Camp Hill, and Cumberland County more generally, is one of the few parts of Pennsylvania that has grown, according to the latest U.S. Census data. It has also become younger and more diverse. And what was once a reliably Republican area now has a strong Democratic footprint.

“When I moved here, Camp Hill was controlled by the Republicans,” said Al Holliday, a Democratic volunteer at the Fredricksen Library polling station who has lived in Camp Hill since 1968. “I was in the vast minority.”

He attributed the changes in the city’s political leanings to “mostly new people moving in and old people retiring — going to Florida or wherever.”

And with the changes, Holliday believes Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has a good chance of winning the Camp Hill vote. He hopes she will win state as well.

“Trump has made too many mistakes,” Holliday said. “He didn’t get good guidance from his parents. Nobody ever said no to him.”

Like Holliday, other Camp Hill voters who went to the polls on Election Day reflected on the shifting politics of their hometown and the way they do and don’t reflect the divide in national politics as a whole.

“Rejecting extremism, I think that’s going to be the story of this election,” said Brianna Labuskes, 37, who volunteered with Holliday.

Like Holliday, she remembers a time when it felt like she was practically the only Democrat.

“I wrote an op-ed against (former President George W.) Bush in high school,” said Labuskes, 37. “People would go up to my parents and say, ‘She doesn’t look like a Democrat.'”

But Labuskes traveled to Washington, D.C., after graduation, and when she moved back to Camp Hill earlier this year, it was to a city in flux.

In addition to defeating Trump, she hopes to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-10th District), former head of the House Freedom Caucus and a prominent 2020 election denier.

She sees both Perry and Trump as extremists who demonize their political opponents. It’s a style she doesn’t see reflected much in Camp Hill itself.

“Everybody’s your neighbor here … You’re going to see a lot less of those tensions,” Labuskes said. “I don’t think the party leaders represent the people.”

Julie Young, 41, is also tired of what she sees as radical politics. She was volunteering at the Republican table just a few feet from the Democrats.

“I think we’ve really gone off the deep end on the radical social issues,” Young said. “Really, most Americans couldn’t care less what you do in your home, who you love, what you do.”

Young said both parties have what she sees as radical views, whether it’s Democrats’ political correctness or Republicans’ abortion policies. And she doesn’t like the way politicians in both parties demonize each other.

But unlike the Labuskes, Young said she feels those tensions at home. In 2019, she ran for a city council seat and felt she experienced hostility because of her political party.

“I didn’t do it Republican, Democrat,” Young said. “But I was scrutinized for being a Republican. I was treated pretty badly.”

Young blames people on both sides of the aisle for the current political tensions. She supports Trump because she prefers his policies and doesn’t think any politician is capable of turning down the temperature.

“It’s about the whole party,” Young said of his preference for Trump. “He’s a figurehead.”

Young believes that tensions have grown, not just in Camp Hill, but across the country. And the changes began before Trump had even entered the political arena.

“I don’t put political signs out on my lawn because I have a daughter and I don’t want her to be ridiculed,” Young said. “I think we’ve lost that civility on both sides.”

Steve Voyzey, 55, another Republican and Trump supporter, said extremism and social change were not top of mind when he went to the polls. But he has observed the increased hostility between the two parties in Washington, DC

“I think they could do a better job of coming together and doing what’s best for the country instead of what’s best for the party,” he said.

Asked if he thought Trump was capable of making it across the aisle, he said: “I like him better than what we got now.”

“I’m not that into it,” Voyzey said of politics. “Here’s what it comes down to: If you’re happy with the last four years, you vote one way. If you are not satisfied with the last four years, vote the other way.”

Miracle Mathis, 25, barely paid attention to politics before she was old enough to vote, and she has never voted in an election without Trump at the top of the ticket.

“I’m not one to worry about it,” she said of the outcome of the election. “I will vote and we will see the result.”

Mathis is voting for Harris primarily because of her views on women’s rights and abortion. But whatever happens, she said she won’t let it stress her out.

“I’m worried, but if it happens, it happens,” Mathis said of a Trump victory. “I still want to live.