Page "Centre County, Pennsylvania" Paragraph 26

Centre County had for many years been a strongly Republican county like most of rural Pennsylvania.

In recent years, however, it has been becoming more competitive.

In 2000 George W. Bush defeated Al Gore with 52 % of the vote to Gore's 43 %.

In 2004 Bush won the county by a much smaller margin.

Bush won 51 % to Kerry's 47 %, a margin of only 4 %.

In 2006, Governor Ed Rendell and Bob Casey Jr. both carried Centre and Democrat Scott Conklin decisively won the State House seat left open by the retirement of Republican Lynn Herman in the 77th district.

In 2008, the Democrats captured the countywide registration edge, Barack Obama carried the county with 55 % of the vote to McCain's 44 %, and the other three statewide winners ( Rob McCord for Treasurer, Jack Wagner for Auditor General, and Tom Corbett for Attorney General ) also carried Centre.

Perhaps the reason for the competitiveness of the Democrats is the fact that the main campus of Penn State is located in State College in the southern half of the county.