PHILADELPHIA -- Jenna Richter never planned to move to the suburbs.

"We had no intention to leave the city whatsoever. We thought we were gonna be, you know, those hip millennial parents," she said.

But Richter's son was born in December of 2019. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she and her husband chose to leave the city for more space and to be closer to family members who could help with child care. They signed a contract in 2020 to build a home in East Brandywine Township — 40 miles west of Center City in Chester County — and moved into the new house that November.

"We're city folks that moved out to the country," Richter, 38, said.

A liberal Democrat who abhors former President Donald Trump, Richter took her politics with her. She plans to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris this year.

"I'm quite liberal, and usually pretty outspoken," Richter said. "I'm disgusted that we're even dealing with this Trump situation. I think it's insane. I cannot comprehend how anyone in their right mind could support somebody like that."

People like Richter have defined a political shift to the left in her new town and throughout the Philadelphia collar counties. East Brandywine represents the sort of community where voters will play an essential role in determining how heavily Southeastern Pennsylvania swings for Harris — and whether she wins the critical swing state of Pennsylvania and the White House.

Once a predominantly rural community, East Brandywine is becoming a picture of suburban sprawl as new housing developments pop up on former farmland. The township of about 10,000 residents is in the Downingtown Area School District and is among a number of fast-growing municipalities in the far reaches of Chester and Montgomery Counties where populations have swelled as people from Philadelphia and denser suburbs relocate for lower housing prices, more open space, and quieter communities.

The population shift has precipitated a political shift. In 2012, Republican nominee Mitt Romney won the township. In 2016, Trump carried one of East Brandywine's three voting precincts, and the township went narrowly for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Four years later, President Joe Biden carried the whole township comfortably.

Those changes reflect a broader shift to the left in Philadelphia's suburbs. Chester County has voted for the Democratic candidate in three of the past four presidential elections, after voting Republican all but twice since 1880. Democrats flipped the county's board of commissioners for the first time in 2019, and the party has further cemented its grip on power since then, flipping municipal governments and state House seats as well.

Census data as well as voting trends show booming outer suburbs like East Brandywine are one of the biggest growth areas for Democrats in the state. In other words, almost all the population growth has benefited Democrats politically.

While newcomers have played a major role in the suburban political shifts, some moderate Republicans have voted for Democrats or switched parties out of frustration with Trump, whose election in 2016 also inspired some residents to become more politically engaged.

The extent to which Democrats can keep up that momentum this year — as Republicans hope to capitalize on frustration with Biden's administration to draw some voters back — could make a key difference for the outcome of the presidential race in Pennsylvania.

Rapid Growth

East Brandywine is barely recognizable from what it was decades ago. Wide open space that was once farmland is now dotted with brand new developments. State records show that 6,516 voters are registered there — and although registered Republican voters still outnumber Democrats, Republican registrations have been shrinking as Democratic registrations have grown. Republicans make up 43% of the township's registered voters, while 38% of registered voters are Democrats.

"Thirty or so years ago you had a farm, and that farm had one resident or two residents on it, and that resident voted. That's two votes. Now, that farm has 300 residents on it and there's 300 residents voting," said Township Supervisor Francis Taraschi, a longtime resident. "They vote in a way that aligns with their life and their life experiences. They could be from all walks of life. They could be from different parts of the country."

Taraschi, a Republican, said he was unsure how he would vote in November, citing frustration with growing political polarization.

The board of supervisors is entirely Republican, despite the town's shift to voting for Democratic candidates for higher office — and even as Democrats have flipped other local governments in recent years.

And the township supervisors were not eager to discuss national politics. Instead, they said, they're focused on issues of traffic and working on zoning ordinances to manage East Brandywine's growth.

Local officials argued that the day to day work of running the township is non-partisan.

"We don't run as an R or a D — we run as a citizen, a resident of East Brandywine," Supervisor Carl Croft said.

Erin Ward, who moved to the township in 2016, lost a supervisor race in 2021 by just 51 votes. The week after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as she was thinking about ways to get more politically involved, Ward said she received a text message that the Democratic Party was looking for people to run for local office. She raised her hand.

Ward, 37, said she didn't talk about national politics while running for supervisor, but she did find that people were surprised to learn her party affiliation.

"A lot of it was more Democrats saying, I didn't realize there were other Democrats here," she said.

Democrats see more opportunity as the community gets younger and population growth continues. The township had a 44% population increase between 2010 and 2020, and nearly 900 new housing units were built, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

And housing construction continues. Just across the street from the township building, a new 55+ community is under construction.

A changed electorate

The influx of new residents into East Brandywine has made the township wealthier and more diverse. East Brandywine remains majority white, but as of 2020 nearly 10% of the township's population was Asian, according to U.S. Census data, a jump from about 2% Asian in 2010.

Lauren Van Dyk, a 37-year-old Democrat who serves on the county planning commission, grew up in East Brandywine and moved back as an adult. The community, she said, has changed dramatically since she was growing up.

"It's probably a township where there wasn't a ton of disagreement on things in the past," she said. "But now there's lots of different types of people from different backgrounds."

Van Dyk and her husband, Seth Mathlery, both plan to vote for Harris. The couple moved to Downingtown in 2016 and then to East Brandywine in 2022 after their home was flooded in Hurricane Ida. Mathlery, a 42-year-old who moved to Chester County from Virginia in 2015, said he voted for a Democrat for the first time when he cast his ballot for Clinton in 2016.

Nancy Gibson, a 68-year-old former Republican committeeperson for the area, said she's tried to slow the blue shift — or even stop it in its tracks. But based on the housing market, Gibson wasn't surprised to see East Brandywine vote for Biden in 2020.

"A lot of the people who were working during COVID, were working at home, came out from the city because they were allowed to stay working at home," she said, noting that East Brandywine had one of the hottest real estate markets in the area.

Gibson worries that Republicans aren't motivated enough to do the field work needed to stop the bleeding. But she sees a path for the party to motivate people disenchanted with Democratic policies.

Republicans will target voters like John Ewing, a 51-year-old who has lived in nearby East Caln Township since 2009 and plans to vote for Trump. Similarly, Ravinder Earla, a 54-year-old who moved to East Brandywine from Kansas City in 2014, said he is more likely to vote for Trump because the former president has already done the job.

Both men voted for Trump in previous elections.

"I think they have an opportunity this time," Ewing said. "The hard part is hopefully somebody tackles Trump when he goes to go on Twitter."

Earla, who said he is from India, cited the economy as a top issue.

"People will say [Trump] is very successful in business, that is what I also see," Earla said.

But Trump's personality is certain to cause problems as Republicans work to win over voters. Daniel McCarrie, 47, has lived in East Brandywine since 2011 and doesn't want to vote for Trump or Harris. He is registered to vote as a Libertarian and voted for that party in 2020.

To earn his vote, McCarrie said, either major party would need to pivot toward the center. He wants to see Democrats focus more on economic issues, and would like Trump to make more policy-driven decisions rather than "feeding into the right-wing hype machine." He doesn't expect either to happen.

"I would love to vote for Trump, it would make my life a little easier. Honestly when I'm in that box I may pivot at the last second and go that way," said McCarrie. "But, man, he just worries me."

©2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Visit at inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.