Every presidential election cycle, certain parts of the country become very popular. Iowa and New Hampshire, for example, see a parade of primary candidates fill up diners and barbershops as they woo “everyday Americans” in those early primary states. Later in the campaign, the swing states, and even swing counties, take center stage.
In the last few presidential election cycles, western Pennsylvania, which includes deep-blue Pittsburgh, has been one of those targeted regions. The reason is that the former steel town is surrounded by bright-red counties, and within the confines of blue Allegheny County, working-class voters have been leaning consistently toward President Donald Trump and MAGA.
The reasons for this are what you might expect. They are tired of illegal immigration; they don’t like being told that boys can be girls, and girls can be boys; and on the economic front, they are sick and tired of Democrats taking away opportunities to make a good living in such industries as natural gas, coal, and manufacturing.
Politically, one of the biggest problems for Republicans in the region is challenging the Democratic hierarchy throughout all levels of government, even extending into certain suburbs that largely vote for Republicans in national elections but that continue to re-elect Democrats to run local government.
Redistricting and gerrymandering haven’t helped. The Democrats enjoy a decided advantage in representation by keeping Summer Lee, a B-team member of “The Squad,” ensconced in office, forcing most of the key red-dominated suburbs to sit down and be quiet. This, sadly, they are all too happy to do.
Ever since the mid-20th century, the Democrat machine has locked down the City of Pittsburgh mayor’s office and most of the city council. The same has been largely true for Allegheny County governance, which is now run by a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) card-holder by the name of Sara Innamorato. To be sure, she ran for office as a Democrat, but that was only because she had been a DSA member before it was cool.
Still, for all the growth of conservatism throughout the region due to the popularity of MAGA, extreme leftist progressivism has remained as immovable as a kidney stone in the region’s core. All government power remains decidedly with the Democrats.
There was a time when Republicans had a slightly bigger voice in the region’s politics, but even then, that voice was moderate to say the least. An old-money, pro-choice philanthropist and political kingmaker by the name of Elsie Hillman called the shots on the Republican side. That was until her passing in 2015.
She played no small role in getting George H.W. Bush elected to the White House, along with all of the Republicans who won the Pennsylvania governorship in recent memory. But even she couldn’t crack the hold the unions and the left had on city and county government.
If it wasn’t for smoke-filled rooms, this region wouldn’t have had many if not most of its officeholders for the past 100 years. When conservatives warn of a one-party government, it’s political environments like this that provide the dire case studies that illustrate the damage Democrats can do.
This comfortable ecosystem for Democrats started to run into turbulence about 10 years ago, when Donald Trump arrived on the scene with his MAGA movement. He went to places that Republicans had quit bothering to visit throughout the region. He appealed to working-class voters in ways no Republican or Democrat did or could.
He attacked the GOP establishment class, and that’s the only Republican class that existed in this region. These are Republicans who know their place.
As has been Trump’s pattern, especially after winning his second term in 2024, Trump disrupted the status quo for Republicans in western Pennsylvania. Actual conservatives saw this as a ray of hope, while the old guard got quite uncomfortable because now they would have to pick a side.
Trump’s political team has been quite effective at working to rebuild the GOP from the grassroots up, and that means getting rid of RINOs wherever they lurk.
That brings us to 2026 and some key developments you’re not likely to see elsewhere, although they are indicators of real progress. If this is happening in other places across the country, conservatism is planting seeds right now that will yield fruit long after Trump leaves office.
I’m talking about events that led up to the toppling of the GOP’s former Allegheny County chief, Mike Embrescia.
In July, Steve Bannon interviewed MAGA activist Mary Jo Costello on his War Room podcast. They talked about Trump’s success at redefining the party at the local level. Costello told Bannon how Republicans across western Pennsylvania united to oust Embrescia and replace him with a retired Pittsburgh homicide detective named Brian Weismantle, who is now the chairman of the Republican Committee of Allegheny County.
Costello told Bannon that this was a huge win for MAGA in its long-term effort to dismantle the old GOP establishment. The founder of a group called TeamRED, Costello said, “Don’t kid yourself, we are fighting our own party.”
In the course of her conversation with Bannon, Costello detailed how she and her team organized to get Weismantle elected, focusing on those below-the-radar offices where MAGA people can effect change. This is similar to the strategy George Soros has become famous for following on the left.
Bannon himself has dubbed the approach the “precinct strategy,” and 10 years after Trump first ran for the presidency, it’s now starting to build its own momentum.
WE THE PEOPLE TOOK OVER
— Real America's Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) July 21, 2026
Team Red’s founder Mary Jo Costello celebrated a grassroots victory in Allegheny County, saying precinct activists delivered 90% turnout and defeated the establishment’s leadership slate. “They never saw it coming—and we crushed it.”@Bannons_WarRoom pic.twitter.com/wwlmcRpwTf
What happened in Allegheny County is something we’re seeing play out in all corners where RINOs are being flushed out. They start to show their true colors, justifying the attempts to remove them. Think Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The leftist Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in an adoring piece on Embrescia, said it best:
One night in late July, just days after the Republican Committee of Allegheny County announced new leadership, Mike Embrescia was in bed contemplating the direction of the local GOP – a thought that he said had already led to many sleepless nights over the past year.
In that moment, the former at-large county councilman – who until November was the highest-ranking Republican government official in Allegheny County – decided it was time.
He pulled out his laptop, entered his information into the state’s voter registration website, and with a click of a button, Embrescia, a lifelong Republican, officially became a member of the Democrat Party.
In other words, someone who bragged about being a lifelong Republican has decided that where he really belonged was with a party now dominated by the DSA.
The Post-Gazette said that Embrescia no longer identified with the Republican Party’s base, particularly a group of MAGA representatives on Allegheny County’s Republican Committee.
A shifting tide?
Even when Pittsburgh was a much larger media market, it always had a small-town feel. You could meet anyone for the first time, and if you were from here, within minutes of talking, you would inevitably discover that the two of you knew some of the same people. Some have described Pittsburgh as provincial in a pejorative sense, but that’s not accurate.
Pittsburghers are very welcoming, but most will put you to the test, which only lasts about 20 seconds. They will watch and listen to you when you first meet, and within 20 seconds, they will determine for themselves whether you are the real deal or not.
Certain aspects of Embrescia’s background tell me all I need to know about his politics. First, he’s an Erie native, not homegrown in the county. Northwestern Pennsylvania culture is not the same as southwestern Pennsylvania culture, and Erie people will be the first to tell you this.
Second, he now hails from Mt. Lebanon, one of the most woke suburbs in the state. While it has its pockets of Republicans, it would be really stretching it to call them conservatives. That’s where Embrescia was chairman of its Republican Committee during the pandemic.
Third, and most important, Embrescia endorsed the state’s Democratic attorney general, Josh Shapiro, in his successful run for governor against Doug Mastriano, who was one of Trump’s most fearless and loyal supporters in the wake of the 2020 election fiasco.
“After the endorsement, Embrescia said he was booed at a monthly committee meeting at a South Hills restaurant,” the Post-Gazette reported.
Embrescia’s political fate was sealed. With his endorsement of Shapiro and the emergence of MAGA in this decidedly blue region, his political career as a Republican was on a downward slide until, in July 2026, it was official.
This is only one small victory among many that must happen across the country in order for the MAGA movement to build the momentum it needs to endure after Trump leaves office. But given the fact that this is happening in one county that will be very important in 2028, it’s something worth noting. Something else worth noting, which is no coincidence, is that this is Democrat Sen. John Fetterman's hometown as well. Fetterman read these tea leaves long before anyone else.
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