Election in Allentown pits three establishment insiders against a firefighter with a populist messageAllentown, Pennsylvania, is the kind of place the national media brings up every now and then to talk about the troubles of the working class. That’s for good reason: the city is a great stand-in for America’s blue-collar blues. Billy Joel even wrote a song about it. The same goes for neighboring Bethlehem, which once was home to the largest steelmaking operation in the world. That operation shuttered in 2003 and was replaced by a casino.No doubt the Lehigh valley has seen better days. But it’s not all in the rear view. In fact, this week this blue-collar bastion could decide the future of the Democratic party.Dustin Guastella is a research associate at the Center for Working Class Politics and the director of operations for Teamsters Local 623 Continue reading...

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/19/pennsylvania-primary-democratic-party