As U.S. midterm election results roll in on Tuesday, many observers will be eyeing the races in the “rust-belt” state of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania broke for Trump by 0.7 per cent in 2016, thanks in part to his promise to bring back manufacturing jobs in the steel industry. It was one of the key reasons he beat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Republicans are hoping that Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs on foreign countries, including Canada, will convince Pennsylvania voters to send more Republicans to Washington.

CTV’s Omar Sachedina spoke to voters who suggest that Republican victory is not a sure thing.

In the City of Clairton, a declining steel industry has left one-quarter of its 4,000 homes condemned, but Trump’s tariffs have caused the local economy to pick up.

Richard Lattanzi, a steelworker who is also the city’s mayor, says he’s taking home $3,000 extra this quarter as a result of a recent steel boom.

“This is the first time in a long time we’re getting a cheque of that amount, and it doesn’t hurt that it’s right before the holidays,” Lattanzi told Sachedina.

But Lattanzi’s improving income hasn’t been enough for the long-time Democrat to switch his allegiance to the Republicans.

“(Trump) cuts a lot of programs that helps my people here in town survive,” Lattanzi said.

A half-hour drive south, in Monessen, a steelworker who supported Trump in 2016 says he’s won’t support him this time around.

John Francis Golomb says he was convinced Trump was going to “bring back our steel” but that hasn’t happened in his town.

“Since he came here in the summer of 2016 he vanished as though he were Houdini,” Golomb said.

Golomb says he “believed in Trump,” and wrote him a four-page letter thanking him for visiting Monessen, but Trump never even sent him a “stamp back.”

“We have buildings that could fall any time and collapse and kill innocent people and he’s not done a thing,” Golomb said.

Golumb added that he feels “played” by Trump.

“Oh dear I feel played,” he said. “I feel very bitter.”
 

With a report from CTV’s Omar Sachedina