MORRISVILLE, Pa. \u2014 Candace Cabanas, a mother and server at an Italian restaurant running for political office for the first time, has distanced herself from the fiery rhetoric and extreme positions of her Donald Trump-led Republican Party.<\/p>\n
But her Democratic opponent, Jim Prokopiak, a school board member, isn\u2019t letting her escape the connection, running ads and sending mailers that tar Cabanas as a \u201cMAGA extremist\u201d who knocked on doors for Trump and supported book bans at schools \u2014 characterizations that Cabanas denies.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople don\u2019t want extremists in government right now. Not here in Bucks County,\u201d Prokopiak said in an interview.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a strategy Democrats have won with in recent elections, especially in swing areas like Bucks County, a vote-rich suburb outside of Philadelphia where moderate and independent voters are heavily courted by presidential campaigns. Here in lower Bucks County, which has an older, White, working-class population largely without college degrees, a vacant state House seat is up for grabs and the winner of a special election on Tuesday will determine the partisan tilt of the lower chamber in Harrisburg, which is deadlocked at 101-101.<\/p>\n
This state race is an early indication of how national Democrats intend to run aggressively on tying Republicans to Trump up and down the ballot. Democrats believe that Trump\u2019s chokehold on the GOP \u2014 and his all-but-certain return as its presidential nominee \u2014 is a liability for Republicans, especially in places like Bucks County. Extremism \u2014 a catchall term Democrats use to include threats to abortion rights and democracy \u2014 has been a winning message for Democrats in recent elections, including the 2022 midterms when Trump was no longer in office, but still loomed large over the party.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m a Democrat I want to make sure that I\u2019m associating whoever I\u2019m running against with Trump,\u201d said Chris Borick, a veteran political pollster at Muhlenberg College.<\/p>\n
Cabanas rejected the label \u201cMAGA\u201d and wouldn\u2019t say whether she personally supports Trump, but said, \u201cHe\u2019s going to be the nominee and as the nominee, I believe it\u2019s the job of us within the party to get behind and support him, to maybe encourage him to find a really good [vice president] that can help balance him out a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cabanas said she never knocked on doors for Trump, though she said her husband did. Her mailers and website do not mention that she\u2019s a Republican and Cabanas is trying to keep her campaign laser-focused on issues that she says are most pressing for struggling working families like hers. She avoids other issues that might fire up the MAGA base, but are anathema to more moderate suburban voters.<\/p>\n
Cabanas said she has never advocated for banning books, for instance, adding, \u201cI think parents have the right to question age appropriateness. Should this be available to a child of a young age or an impressionable age, particularly things of sexual or explicit nature?\u201d And she refuses to offer specifics on her personal views on abortion rights \u2014 which Democrats plan to make a major component of their 2024 campaign \u2014 saying it\u2019s \u201ca decision that the people need to make, and what they\u2019re telling us is they think it should be legal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dilemma for Republicans like Cabanas is how to distance themselves at least somewhat from Trump while still courting his loyal base. In the fight for control of the U.S. House and Senate this year, Republican candidates will have to toe the same line, embracing Trump as their nominee in conservative areas while calibrating their words more carefully in places like Bucks County.<\/p>\n
Bucks County is historically a purple area, and turnout here figures heavily in who wins the crucial swing state in presidential contests. In 2016, Hillary Clinton eked out a victory in Bucks by less than one percentage point and lost the state to Trump. Four years later, Joe Biden performed better in the Philadelphia suburbs \u2014 he won Bucks by four percentage points \u2014 giving him the edge he needed to win the state back. To win Pennsylvania in a presidential election, Democrats need strong turnout in Philadelphia and its four collar counties to offset Republican victories in the sprawling rural parts of the state.<\/p>\n
The baggage of running in Trump\u2019s party was on display on a mild, sunny morning this week as Cabanas knocked on doors in Morrisville, a small borough across the river from New Jersey, clutching a stack of campaign leaflets.<\/p>\n
After one man opened the door, she started to introduce herself, but he cut her off, \u201cAre you a Democrat or Republican?\u201d he asked. She replied, \u201cRepublican.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot in a million years,\u201d he said, shutting the door.<\/p>\n
James Marcellus, 52, who works maintenance at Bucks County Community College, is vehemently opposed to Trump and the current Republican Party. Sitting on a couch in his home, his Doberman pinscher curled up next to him, Marcellus, a registered Democrat, said he\u2019d consider voting for a Republican if \u201cyou bring in an actual candidate that I can trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Republican Party, I can\u2019t trust a single one of them as far as I know,\u201d Marcellus said.<\/p>\n
But Jane Burger, 78, a retired social work administrator who described herself as a moderate Republican, said she is voting for Cabanas and was surprised to hear Democrats were calling her MAGA.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to get past fear tactics and stop making these other elected offices about Trump,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Jeff Hall-Gale, an executive with the Bucks County Republican Committee who has been knocking on doors for Cabanas, said Democrats have done well in recent cycles by labeling all Republican candidates as extremists. He pointed to Pennsylvania Republicans\u2019 choice for governor in 2022 \u2014 Doug Mastriano, a far-right state senator who has espoused Christian nationalist beliefs. Democrat Josh Shapiro beat him overwhelmingly, including by 20 percentage points in Bucks County.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what the Democrats play into a little bit is the Mastriano type of politics where you have, you know, they want to paint all Republicans under the same MAGA, controversial brush that we\u2019re all book banners, that we all want full-out abortion bans, every Republican, they paint us all with the same brush,\u201d Hall-Gale said.<\/p>\n
Moderate Republicans who are better known, like Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, whose brother, Michael G. Fitzpatrick, was in Congress before him, have shown they can still win Bucks County even with Trump or Mastriano at the top of the ticket. But for lesser-known candidates such as Cabanas, it\u2019s harder to convince voters that, \u201clook, I\u2019m normal,\u201d Hall-Gale said.<\/p>\n
Paul McGinty, 49, a high school special education teacher, had long been a registered Republican until Trump came along. He officially switched parties in June 2022 after Pennsylvania Republicans chose Mastriano as their nominee and McGinty said he realized that Trump wasn\u2019t \u201can anomaly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see us swinging back to being a moderate party,\u201d he said. He shrugged when asked how he felt about voting for Biden in November, saying he\u2019d prefer to see some \u201cfresh blood,\u201d but he said he\u2019ll vote for the Democratic president as an anti-Trump vote.<\/p>\n
The state House district up for grabs on Tuesday leans more Democratic than the county as a whole and Prokopiak is favored to win. Whoever wins will fill the seat through the end of the year, after which the two candidates are expected to run against each other again in November.<\/p>\n
But Democrats took nothing for granted in this race. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), the national group responsible for helping Democrats win state races, gave $50,000 to Pennsylvania\u2019s House Democratic Campaign Committee that could be used on the contest. Prokopiak raised enough money, $140,000 according to his campaign, to air television and digital ads and send seven different mailers. Cabanas has run her campaign on a shoestring budget, raising about $10,000 with little outside support.<\/p>\n
Heather Williams, president of the DLCC, said the organization invested in the race because it wanted to ensure a Democratic majority to block Republicans\u2019 \u201cextreme agenda.\u201d The Pennsylvania state Senate is controlled by Republicans.<\/p>\n
\u201cMAGA is a way to talk about where Republicans are today,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI think that the tie to that is successful because that is synonymous now with the Republican Party. You just can say one or the other, and people know exactly what you\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Republican Legislative Campaign Committee did not respond to a request for comment about the race.<\/p>\n
Prokopiak has mostly made his campaign about local issues, like raising the state\u2019s minimum wage and building more affordable housing. But he also has made reproductive rights a cornerstone of his policy platform, referencing it on almost all of his campaign materials.<\/p>\n
At a small event sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, at a supporter\u2019s home, Prokopiak warned that Republicans wanted to take away people\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to stop this extremist agenda that we see at the school board level, and we see at the state House level, and we see at the state Senate level, all through the Republican Party, frankly,\u201d Prokopiak said. \u201cFor far too many people on the Republican side now, they think that you can pick and choose who gets to have rights and who doesn\u2019t get to have rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
The issue is top of mind for a lot of voters, including Meghan Horn, 34, who assured Prokopiak when he showed up on her doorstep in Levittown that she\u2019d be voting for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur state legislature for at least a decade has leaned Republican. So, it\u2019s concerning, you know, as a woman, it\u2019s concerning, and it worries me,\u201d Horn said. \u201cMy friend has a daughter who\u2019s growing up, and to think that she won\u2019t have those rights \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
MORRISVILLE, Pa. \u2014 Candace Cabanas, a mother and server at an Italian restaurant running for political office for the first time, has distanced herself from the fiery rhetoric and extreme positions of her Donald Trump-led Republican Party. But her Democratic opponent, Jim Prokopiak, a school board member, isn\u2019t letting her escape the connection, running ads […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":933,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}