January 6 fallout causes GOP to fracture in key Pennsylvania county

On Wednesday, CNN published an analysis of how the Republican Party of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania — one of the GOP's most important strongholds in the commonwealth — has been rocked and reshaped by the January 6 Capitol insurrection, one year after the incident.

Some longtime Republicans left the party over the affair, wrote Jeremy Herb, including former county chair Ethan Demme: "Disgusted by the denial of the 2020 election and the violence at the Capitol, Demme and his two colleagues sent a joint letter on January 7 to the county GOP chair saying the party they once knew was 'gone and has left us behind.'"

On the other hand were Stephen and Danielle Lindemuth, who attended the "Stop the Steal" rally that preceded the attack: "Both Stephen, a pastor and substitute teacher, and Danielle, a secretary for the church group that organized the January 6 bus trip, won seats in November on the local school board, despite several local Republican officials endorsing their Democratic opponents. Stephen also won his campaign to be an election judge."

READ MORE: How a suburban Pennsylvania school board race became a Trumpian battleground

"The politics of Lancaster County over the past year shows how Trump's election lies morphed into anger over a range of issues at the local level, from mask mandates to debates over Critical Race Theory and defunding the police," noted Herb. "Interviews with more than 20 Republican and Democratic elected officials, party leaders and activists in Lancaster County reveal how this pattern of political grievance fueled Republican turnout in typically mundane off-year municipal races, reversing Democrats' electoral gains during Trump's presidency."

Lancaster County has been a battleground for right-wing grievances. Another resident of the county, Michael Lopatic, was arrested after allegedly punching a police officer at the Capitol attack — his social media page was reportedly full of pictures of dead birds he had named after Democratic politicians.

You can read more here.