MECHANICSBURG, Pennsylvania — When you pull into Legacy Park, you can tell it was a farm just a few years ago. Today, the development is home to a yuppie brew pub, a soap boutique, and an environmentalist-themed coffee shop called Down to Earth Café, whose motto is “coffee with an impact.”

The clientele is upper-middle-class young families or retirees who arrive in Japanese cars and puffer coats. The staff have dyed hair and all sorts of piercings. Cumberland County is changing.

No county in Pennsylvania has grown more in population over the past 15 years: it is up 20% since 2010. Cumberland has lost about 14% of its farm land in five years, according to the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, which puts Cumberland in the top 10 Pennsylvania counties (out of 67) on that score. In 2000, about 28% of residents over the age of 25 had a bachelor’s degree or higher. Now, it’s 40%.

The changes are worrying Gary Eichelberg, a conservative on the County Commission.

“It’s definitely a more liberal crowd,” Eichelberg said over lunch at the Down to Earth Café.

He is worried about a Democratic takeover of the state after President Donald Trump leaves office. He speaks of the “T” that is Pennsylvania when you take away the Southeast (Philadelphia) and Southwest (Pittsburgh) corners. That T has always been how Republicans stayed competitive here. He fears the changes in Cumberland County will “break the T,” and make Republicans the underdogs for the foreseeable future.

This is not merely a Cumberland County thing. One........

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