The Assassination Attempt Is Accelerating Republican Organizing in Pennsylvania

GOP county chairs in northwestern Pennsylvania say they’re seeing a dramatic uptick in enthusiasm over the last several days.

Donald Trump arrives for the Butler, PA rally.
Evan Vucci/AP

On a typical Monday at the Erie County Republican Party Headquarters, Tom Eddy gets “two, three, maybe four” people stopping by. That wasn’t the case this week.

“My wife was at our headquarters on Monday, and she said it was crazy, people coming in wanting stuff,” Eddy said.” I mean, we’ve always had people come in; we’ve never seen these numbers before of people coming in wanting signs, wanting T-shirts, wanting flags.”

It was the first morning the office was open following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. In Erie, and in other counties around northwestern Pennsylvania, the shooting was close to home — and Republicans are energized.