Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton greets supporters during a campaign rally on November 7, 2016 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Getty)
In bowing out of the Paris climate accord, President Donald Trump evoked Pittsburgh.
“I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” the president said.
“Pittsburgh, not Paris” – it was the most memorable line to emerge from the decision.
However, it turns out that Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania overwhelming voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. That’s despite the fact that Trump staged a surprise upset in Pennsylvania. That state was one of a triumvirate of working class, historically presidential blue states that Trump flipped in November (Michigan and Wisconsin were the others).
The Pittsburgh mayor immediately fired back at Trump, saying that Pittsburgh voted 80% for Hillary Clinton. You can find Pittsburgh ward-by-ward election results here.
“Fact: Hillary Clinton received 80% of the vote in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh stands with the world & will follow Paris Agreement,” Mayor Bill Peduto tweeted.
Trump: I was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris
Pittsburgh mayor: We voted for Clinton w/ nearly 80% of vote t.co/a1D7oyLA6t
Peduto also tweeted, “The United States joins Syria, Nicaragua & Russia in deciding not to participate with world’s Paris Agreement. It’s now up to cities to lead.” The agreement says that it strives to “hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.”
The mayor said he would join with many other big city mayors and make sure that Pittsburgh follows the Paris agreement.
Is it true? Did Pittsburgh really vote that overwhelmingly for Clinton?
According to the Pittsburgh Press-Gazette, these were the Pittsburgh election returns:
Clinton: 114,847
Trump: 31,805
Stein: 1,715
Castle 328
Johnson 142
There were 148,837 total votes were cast in Pittsburgh, meaning Clinton received about 77% of them. So the mayor rounded off. Trump received about 21 percent.
Trump also lost pretty overwhelmingly in the county where Pittsburgh is located. In fact, Pittsburgh and its county were blue in a sea of more rural red in Pennsylvania (similar to Philadelphia).
Pittsburgh is located in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. According to the County website, these were the 2016 general election returns for Allegheny County:
Clinton: 366,203 votes or 55.92%
Trump: 258,728 votes or 39.51%
Johnson: 16,008 votes or 2.44%
Write-in: 7,029 votes or 1.07%
Stein: 5,074 votes or .77%
Trump’s Pittsburgh reference was a play to the working class/economic/bring jobs back theme that Trump campaigned on and was not necessarily an indication that Pittsburgh voted for him, of course. He’s argued that the Paris agreement would put the American economy at a disadvantage, although opponents say he’s taken a step that will harm the climate.
When it comes to the State of Pennsylvania as a whole, Trump won by a small margin: He had 2,970,733 votes to Clinton’s 2,926,441. In his Paris agreement speech, Trump also mentioned Youngstown, Ohio and Detroit, which are also cities that Clinton won, according to The Hill.
