On a clear day, a hiker standing atop Bake Oven Knob, a high point along the Appalachian Trail in Lehigh Furnace, Pa., can see most of state Sen. Jarrett Coleman’s district.
Below the crest of Blue Mountain lies a patchwork of woods and farmsteads in the historically Pennsylvania Dutch communities. On the horizon lies the growing, diverse footprint of Allentown, Pennsylvania’s third-largest city.
Beyond Allentown lies mixed suburbs like Emmaus and Coopersburg, before again giving way to rural communities like Hosensack and Old Zionsville, the latter being the hometown of former three-term Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.
As Pennsylvania’s friendlier economic climate draws transplants from New York and New Jersey, its farmland has been gradually replaced by residential subdivisions and corporate warehousing.
All of those factors combine to create what Allentown Democratic Mayor Matt Tuerk called the “swingiest” area of the perennial bellwether state.
Coleman, a Republican and an airline pilot who entered the political scene as an outspoken conservative member of the Parkland School Board during the height of national controversies, said Republicans are poised to do well in the Lehigh Valley this year.