Central Pennsylvania — As Senator Pat Toomey walked into a packed room at the Morris Family Restaurant in Bloomsburg, Pa., an old man sitting in a corner shouted: “If you don’t support him, I don’t support you!” Harvey Eckert, a retired federal employee, pointed to his red baseball cap with the familiar words: “Make America Great Again.” Toomey heard Eckert’s booming voice but kept moving between rows of tables where local Republicans ate omelets and hash browns. On the opposite side of the room, the GOP senator made his pitch for reelection, talking about economic growth, national security, and law enforcement, his voice competing against the clatter of forks, knives, and breakfast plates.
When he finished, Toomey took questions — and the first one came in the form of a statement from David J. McElwee, a gun dealer in a red blazer: “It’s very important to us that you support the Republican nominee.” He handed Toomey an envelope. It contained a letter in which McElwee pledged to vote for the senator, “but that is all.” And so instead of discussing the threat of Iranian nuclear weapons, a new transfer of terrorists out of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, or the dilemma of sanctuary cities (topics Toomey had raised in his brief remarks), the senator found himself explaining his views on the subject that has dominated American political life for the last year: Donald Trump.
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