President Donald Trump's triumph over Democrat Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania's general election last November was not only a major surprise, but the official results just released show how dominating Trump was in rural counties allowing him to more than offset his being bashed in Philadelphia.

Although Trump carried the state by just 44,292 votes out of 5.9 million cast and won all 20 electoral votes, he carried 56 of the state's 67 counties and won 42 of them, including Carbon and Schuylkill, by 30 percent or more. In Bradford County, which borders New York state, he had 82 percent of the vote, compared with Clinton's 16 percent.Clinton carried Philadelphia County with 82 percent to Trump's 16 percent. Clinton won two local counties - Lehigh with 50.4 percent to Trump's 45.9 percent and Monroe with 48.4 percent to Trump's 48.1 percent.Trump won handily in Schuylkill County with 70 percent to Clinton's 29 percent, Carbon with 65 percent to Clinton's 31 percent. He also edged Clinton in Northampton with 50 percent to Clinton's 46 percent.Trump's followers showed an intense passion for him, especially in the state's rural and rust-belt communities. In this most extraordinary of election years, these disillusioned voters, who were fed up with Washington insiders, willingly took a chance with a successful but controversial businessman who had no political experience, was unencumbered by special interests and who pretty much said what was on his mind, even if what he said was later proven to be false.Despite what appears to some to be chaos in the White House since Trump took office on Jan. 20, his base of followers remains remarkably loyal. A recent poll showed that 96 percent of those who voted for him said they would do it again.Even "Women for Trump" were willing to overlook his demeaning banter with Billy Bush in 2005 on the Access Hollywood set about grabbing private parts and making other lewd and crude references to the female anatomy.In the bluest of blue strongholds, such as Scranton and Wilkes-Barre and even once solidly Democratic Westmoreland County, Trump did far better than anyone could have imagined. Westmoreland's blue-collar, working-class Democrats abandoned the party in droves in 2016.Luzerne County went for Trump, the first time the GOP presidential candidate captured the county since 1988 when George H.W. Bush became president.Closer to home, it was the same in Northampton County, another Democratic bastion that also went Republican for the first time since 1988.The disarray of the state Democratic Party was on full display, starting at the top and trickling down from there. Gov. Tom Wolf, a native of York County where Trump won big, helped raise money for Clinton and appeared at some Clinton rallies, but he is a novice campaigner compared with, let's say, former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell, especially in this type of a bare-knuckles, no-holds-barred campaign.Even the heavy hitters of the Democratic Party - former first couple Barack and Michelle Obama - who let it all hang out for Clinton in the homestretch of the campaign with a star-studded rally in Philadelphia, could not pull a donkey out of the hat for Obama's former rival.Residents in Carbon, Schuylkill and northeast Pennsylvania were ready for a mini-revolution, and Trump sensed it.He appeared in Scranton several times, bringing out huge crowds and repeating a pledge to put Americans back to work in good-paying jobs. He even promised to get miners working again. That was the message these beat-up and economically distressed voters have been yearning to hear.When it came time to offset the annual Capitol Correspondents dinner in Washington, D.C., on April 29, Trump said he would be a no-show and instead hold a campaign-style rally in Harrisburg rather than appear at the black-tie affair populated mainly with the media elite.With the crowd on its feet and cheering wildly at the state capital rally, Trump said, "I love this state, and I love the people of this state. It's special, and it carried us to a big, beautiful victory on Nov. 8."Rendell thought Trump played Pennsylvania much more effectively than Clinton. "People were looking for easy answers to complex issues; Donald Trump gave them easy answers," Rendell told philly.com.By Bruce Frassinelli |

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