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"Why was this guy ever a Democrat?"

Having grown up in Western PA, my guess would be that he grew up in a union household and was indoctrinated since birth. It's an odd phenomenon. In Pittsburgh and many of the small surrounding towns that used to be heavy coal and steel, you'll find lots of otherwise conservative people, gun owners, hunters, regular church-goers, who grew up in union households and would never dare vote republican. That started to change a little under Reagan, but to this day it's not hard to find people like that.

Why was this guy ever a Democrat?

Lots of Western PA Democrats are culturally conservative, but register and vote Democrat because.....well, Grandma and Grandpa did.

"They're the party of the Workin' Man! Republicans only care about the Robber Barons!" That's been beaten into peoples' brains around here since the Homestead Strike.

Lots of others register Democrat because the only real choice you have at the ballot box most often is in the Democrat Primary. The GOP is so weak around here they don't even bother to field candidates for a lot of offices.

You can feel the tension building however as Mayor Bill Peduto imports swarms of Millenial techies with their San Francisco values. That's not sitting well at all with the old-school Yinzer Millhunk Democrats.