STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
OK, Michel and I have been talking with voters across Pennsylvania. They're in one of the states deciding the presidency.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
So we've each been on election road trips, and we are going to tell you what we've been hearing all week on this program. We've been meeting people at work, where so many of us spend so much time, but also, you know, in restaurants and on the streets.
INSKEEP: And, Michel, as you know, I sometimes just walk down an interesting residential street knocking on doors. Whoever answers, that's my story - unfiltered front porch reality. As you will hear in this story, people sometimes use strong language, and so do their dogs.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)
INSKEEP: Yes, I agree with you. Oh, what a good dog. Hi.
Nancy Evans (ph) pulled down the top half of the storm door so we could chat without letting out the springer spaniel. They live on a street of brick houses from the mid-1900s.
NANCY EVANS: It's just a nice, friendly, middle-class neighborhood.
INSKEEP: With lots of dogs.
EVANS: Lots of dogs.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
EVANS: People look out for each other.
INSKEEP: This street outside Pittsburgh overlooks the Monongahela River valley, home to giant smokestacks and sheds, one of the plants run here by U.S. Steel. This neighborhood was closely divided in the 2020 election, and I wanted a sense of 2024.
What do you think in the presidential election?
EVANS: (Laughter) We're living in a mixed-race household here (laughter).
INSKEEP: OK, OK. Go on, go on. What do you mean?
EVANS: I mean I'm going for the Democratic ticket...
INSKEEP: Harris.
EVANS: And he's going for the Republican ticket.
INSKEEP: He's going for Trump? OK, OK.
EVANS: Yeah.
INSKEEP: Do you guys have debates about that?
EVANS: (Laughter) If you want to call them debates.
INSKEEP: OK.
EVANS: Spirited conversations (laughter).
INSKEEP: Oh, OK. That's nice, that's nice.
Her husband, Greg (ph), came to the door, too. They're a retired couple with ancestors from eastern Europe. They know the local economy is part of the national conversation. Both presidential candidates oppose a plan to sell U.S. Steel to a Japanese company. Greg worked for decades at U.S. Steel before he retired. He is cynical about the sale, predicting it will mainly make rich people richer.
GREG: I'll tell you, my dad would probably roll over in his grave, because he was in World War II, and he worked for U.S. Steel.
INSKEEP: Yet, like many Pennsylvanians we met, he doesn't seem that strongly opposed to the sale himself and thinks it might even save some jobs. What Nancy and Greg do feel strongly about is the character of the candidates.
What makes you lean toward Harris?
EVANS: Probably because I think Trump is a despicable human being and a piece of [expletive]. OK, other than that - (laughter).
INSKEEP: That's a reason, that's a reason.
EVANS: Yes, I can't stomach him.
INSKEEP: She's been a Democrat her whole life and sees the Republican candidate in cognitive decline. Greg guffawed and made remarks as Nancy talked about promises Trump didn't keep the last time he was president.
EVANS: I have a handy-dandy new health care plan that I'll show you in two weeks. And that went on for four years and never showed us anything. The whole Project 2025 thing scares the living hell out of me.
GREG: That's a lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.
EVANS: Let me talk. It'll be your turn next.
INSKEEP: Project 2025 is a plan for a future Republican president largely devised by Trump's former aides. It offers names of loyal future officials and plans for everything from education to abortion rights. Trump has tried to distance himself from it.
Where do you get your news?
EVANS: Oh, everywhere. I mean, I get it from local news. I get it from "World News Tonight."
INSKEEP: ABC, OK.
EVANS: I watch some CNN.
INSKEEP: CNN.
EVANS: Every once in a while, I'll watch some Fox, but - (laughter)
INSKEEP: You just kind of stuck...
EVANS: Yeah.
INSKEEP: You just made the gag motion, OK.
EVANS: Yeah. But he watches Fox a lot. I feel like I'm pretty well-read and pretty well-informed. I don't just have tunnel vision towards...
INSKEEP: Yeah.
EVANS: ...One thing, you know? I try to keep an open mind.
INSKEEP: Got it.
As she promised, Greg did get a turn. And when I asked what he likes about Trump, he began by saying Democrats attack him.
GREG: Russian collusion and all that stuff, you know, that's all fake, and they're still after his a**. I've never seen anybody get the DOJ get on his a** as much as anybody else.
EVANS: No, but he wants to know what's right about him.
GREG: What's right is he was doing business. You know, he was getting things done.
INSKEEP: I mean, a lot of people looked at Trump in the White House and just saw chaos and distraction, but you saw practical things happening?
GREG: I have people in the military, and they were very happy with what he was doing for the military. Everything was going fine. Oil prices were down. I was making some money. Taxes were fine.
INSKEEP: Those were his last years before retirement, which he remembers as good times. Nancy also prospered, as a retail manager, but had more trouble with the man at the top then and sees Kamala Harris as more ready to lead now, no matter what Greg thinks.
GREG: Yeah, it is what it is.
EVANS: We've been married for 36...
GREG: Yeah, I've been putting up with her for that long, so...
EVANS: (Laughter) So we're certainly not going to get divorced over it, but you know...
INSKEEP: You're supposed to say she's been putting up with me for that long.
EVANS: (Laughter).
INSKEEP: I think you said that wrong.
GREG: You just got to carry on.
EVANS: Yeah. I mean, you know, it's not going to change anything...
INSKEEP: He moved a little closer and gently touched her back. This divided household has to negotiate rules. Greg gestured toward a piece of red, white and blue cardboard hidden in a corner of the porch.
GREG: See that? I have a Trump sign back here, but she won't let me put it up.
INSKEEP: Oh, where is it?
JULIE DEPENBROCK, BYLINE: Oh, is it behind the recycling bins?
GREG: Yeah.
INSKEEP: Oh.
DEPENBROCK: (Laughter).
INSKEEP: Our producer Julie Depenbrock gestured toward the Trump sign. Some days ago, Greg sneaked it onto the lawn. Nancy threw it in the recycling.
EVANS: If I can't put up a Harris sign out of respect for you, then you can't put up a Trump sign out of respect for me.
INSKEEP: Greg took the sign back out of the bin, though he has not put it back on display. The family truce holds, though they will cancel out each other's votes in this divided state.
(SOUNDBITE OF MAC MILLER SONG, "HURT FEELINGS")
MARTIN: Well, Steve, they sound adorable.
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
MARTIN: But I think it's a good thing that you got out of Dodge before things got a little more heated than that.
INSKEEP: (Laughter) They seemed to get along, but there were a lot of people with passionate opinions. I took a road trip from Pittsburgh eastward through the mountains to Gettysburg. I'm on my way to Pennsylvania. You're already in Philadelphia...
MARTIN: Yeah.
INSKEEP: ...Having done a lot of eastern Pennsylvania, right?
MARTIN: And I can tell you that the feelings are heated. We had a conversation with a group of voters, and I can tell you there was some raised voices. Thankfully, they also hugged it out at the end.
INSKEEP: OK, OK.
MARTIN: So hopefully that's a good sign. But I think the heated voices are something we should pay attention to.
INSKEEP: Absolutely. Michel and I will be in Pennsylvania all week long. Tomorrow, we're hosting a live event at WHYY in Philadelphia. And then Thursday morning, we will be hosting this program, MORNING EDITION, live from a coffee shop in south Philly. Join us.
(SOUNDBITE OF MAC MILLER SONG, "HURT FEELINGS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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