BUTLER, Pa. — About 15 minutes before former President Trump took the stage for his Saturday rally in Butler, he shook hands with Jondavid Longo, the mayor of nearby Slippery Rock.
“You did a great job,†Trump said. He had watched Longo’s pre-rally speech from a livestream while aboard Trump Force One, his Boeing 757. “I listened to every word. Keep that up. How’s it going out there?â€
“Mr. President, Butler County is going to deliver Pennsylvania to you,†Longo replied. “We’re working hard.â€
Later, Longo was sitting about 15 feet from Trump’s lectern when he recognized the crack of gunfire from his time in the Marine Corps. He immediately pulled his wife to the ground and covered her as best he could. He saw Secret Service agents pounce on Trump and then the former president stand back up, raising a fist into the air in what Longo could describe only as an act of “triumphant defiance.â€
“It’s going to go down as one of the most iconic images of the last century and perhaps in all of American history,†he said.
The people of Butler County know the events of that day could have been much worse, with a would-be assassin getting so close to killing Trump and upending the nation.
The heavily Republican community is now grappling with that notoriety — and grieving the losses.
The assassination attempt also has residents in this swing state, which could determine who wins the November presidential election, reflecting on the nation’s political divisions.
A string of security failures led to a gunman being able to fire multiple shots at former President Trump, killing a retired fire chief and wounding two others, law enforcement sources say.
“I don’t think any community would hope to be known for an assassination,†said Donald Shearer, a Republican City Council member in Butler who hasn’t decided whether he will support President Biden or Trump.
Although Pittsburgh and its surrounding counties have traditionally voted blue, Butler County has served as a Republican stronghold. The last time a Democratic candidate won a majority of the votes in Butler was when President Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Republican nominee Barry Goldwater in 1964.
“As Pennsylvania goes, so goes the White House,†Longo said.
A majority of his constituents in Slippery Rock — a Butler County borough — grew up in rural, small-town and faith-based communities, he said. Many are veterans. There is also a culture of volunteerism, specifically in the Fire Departments.
Longo’s voters care most about 2nd Amendment rights, “medical freedom†from COVID-19 mandates and restrictions, and “financial independence,†he said.
“They want to be able to go work, make a living and put food on the table without the government sticking their hands in their pockets,†he added. “Those are the things Butler County residents believe are embodied by Trump.â€
The assassination attempt has left residents here on edge. Television news trucks in the days that followed lined the street outside the Butler Farm Show, where the rally was held.
“I blame the media,†said Cheryl Gunther, vice chair of the United Republicans of Butler County political action committee, who was volunteering at the rally when Trump was shot. She thinks news outlets have unfairly associated Trump with white supremacists and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Chuck Pascal, Democratic chair of Armstrong County, located next to Butler, credits the shift from “traditional Republican red†to “MAGA red†with the deindustrialization of the region during the early 1980s. As most of the global steel production gradually shifted to China, U.S. plants became less profitable and had difficulty competing with foreign companies, some of which got subsidies from the government.
Members of the Republican Party have gathered in Milwaukee to officially name former President Trump to the 2024 ticket.
“The people who were union workers and lost their jobs because of policies just got annoyed with everybody and are voting against anything that looks like the establishment,†he said. “It used to be back then that the Democrats were for the little guy, and over time, through trade policies, that put everybody out of work. As a result, they don’t trust anyone anymore.â€
A lot of people in Butler County, Pascal said, want their communities to go back to the way it was, meaning they don’t want to travel an hour and a half to work for a higher-paying job, and they want their kids to stay in the area even after getting an advanced degree.
“We just have to get back to talking to each other as humans,†he said.
Some Trump supporters here expressed issues with some of his policies and said they’d be willing to vote for Democratic candidates if they agreed with their platforms.
Shari Bennetti lives about a quarter-mile from the rally site and was throwing a Trump party at her house when they watched the shooting unfold on TV. She is a registered Republican but voted for Bill Clinton in the past.
“I always voted for who I felt was the best candidate, whether it’s Republican or Democrat, because I voted both ways,†she said.
Bennetti said she supports Trump because she believes he doesn’t have “hands in his pockets†and isn’t as influenced by lobbyists and big corporations.
“With Trump, he was a businessman and it was hard-core business, and people hated him,†she said. “I thought he was going to do good, not knowing, just a feeling in my heart that he was going to do good.â€
Amy Bocci, the daughter of a steel mill worker, grew up in a firmly Democratic household in the Pittsburgh suburb of Monroeville. As a kid, she said, she didn’t know or care much about politics. She identifies as Christian and went to church every Sunday.
It wasn’t until about 30 years ago, when she moved to Butler County, that things started to shift for her politically.
The 50-year-old disliked some of the policies of former Presidents Clinton and Obama. Specifically, Bocci disagreed with their stances on abortion.
“I just like traditional family values,†she said. “I just felt like they were just getting away from all of that.â€
Bocci has voted Republican ever since and is planning to vote for Trump for the third time this fall. During the rally Saturday, Bocci and her husband, Dave, decided to watch the event from their friend’s house about a quarter-mile away from the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds.
Bocci burst into tears after seeing Trump get shot and his motorcade race down her street as first responders transported the former president to a hospital.
“This is just a very hardworking, very family-oriented community,†Bocci said. “We love God. We love our armed forces. We’re just mostly good country people, and there is such a love of Trump here.â€
Lori Sarver, 54, has lived in Cranberry Township in southwestern Butler County for 40 years but used to live in Allegheny County. She voted for Obama twice but said she regrets her decision, declining to specify why.
On Monday, Sarver stopped by a roadside Trump merchandise store and bought half a dozen T-shirts.
She voted for Trump in 2016, she said, because of his stricter policies on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border. Sarver also believes Trump would be better for employment and inflation rates, as well as gas prices.
But she said she was disappointed with the overruling of Roe vs. Wade. Trump has taken credit for selecting the Supreme Court justices who ended the landmark decision that gave women the right to abortion.
“I am a woman,†Sarver said. “And you know, things happen to women that are horrible, and I don’t believe anybody should tell me what to do with my body. So that was hurtful.â€
Chuck and Jody Pflugh of Eau Claire in Butler County also said they support abortion rights — and the former president. Other issues, such as the economy, are more important to them.
“There’s never going to be a president where I agree with everything that comes out of his mouth,†Chuck Pflugh said.
But local Democrats have not given up hope that the abortion issue can sway voters.
“Nobody wants to see women subject to some of the laws coming out of the states,†said Kate Lennen, who is running for a state Senate seat that covers parts of southern Butler County.
A big question for residents here is whether any election can change the long-term economic fortunes of the region.
The blue-collar county has struggled to reinvent itself after the loss of the steel industry.
“We’re not a rich area. We’re struggling financially. We have deteriorating infrastructure. We used to be a steel town. We’ve lost a lot of the city’s residents to the suburbs,†said Troy Douthett, a member of the Butler City Council.
Colby King, a 40-year-old urban sociologist, grew up in Butler and moved to South Carolina after college. He goes back to Butler almost every year to visit his parents.
“It is a complex and diverse place,†he said of Butler, noting the economic decline that’s occurred over the years as some high-paying jobs disappeared and more young professionals left for urban areas. “There’s more than one story, and there’s no one incident that would represent the whole community.â€
King’s 71-year-old father, William, who was born and raised in Butler, was employed as a steelworker for nearly three decades before retiring in 2010 from the Cleveland-Cliffs plant.
When he started in the 1970s, there were nearly 5,000 steelworkers at the mill where he worked. When he retired, there were about 1,500.
William King said he is a lifelong Democrat and plans to vote for Biden in the election. Although there are a lot of Trump supporters in his neighborhood, he said, he would never vote for the former president.
“I feel both guys are not completely honest people, but I think Biden is more honest,†he said. “Trump has been indicted, he’s been impeached and he’s crooked. That’s all it is. Crooked people are voting for crooked people.â€
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