BUCKINGHAM – In Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, the Duke of Buckingham gets taken out of the action early, but this town doesn’t figure on going the same way, as it stands at the heart of Bucks, a battleground county in a battleground state bucking not just for Election Day relevance but a piece of the national action.

Dotted with magnificent old stone homes, newer quasi mansions, and monuments to domestic bliss hovering between suburban and rural, York Road right now looks like a lawn sign tug of war between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, with the visible numbers edge going to Harris and the outlandish display of public affection edge going to Trump.

If the profusion of Harris-Walz signage shows Bucks County’s substantial pushback against the Trump era Republican Party, giant signs along the road outside the Elm Grove Estate warn passersby of the dangers of voting against Trump. Rising above the sprawling fenced-in fields stands a sign displaying the Soviet hammer and sickle alongside the argument that a vote for Harris equals a vote for communism.

Homeowner Christine Figueroa told InsiderNJ why she feels obligated as an American to communicate her pro-MAGA, pro-Trump-Vance ticket message. “We are very concerned about the sexualization of our children in schools, which leads to the mutilation of our children,” said the mother of four who runs an animal rescue program at the farm, one of the gems of Bucks County.

But what about retired Marine Corps General John Kelly – Trump’s former chief-of-staff – asserting that his former boss “meets the definition of a fascist?”

“You don’t have to like him to pick him over the alternative and a radical ideology of mutilating underage children,” said Figueroa, who described Harris as unprepared for the office of the presidency and unaccomplished.

“She can’t answer one question honestly,” she said.

Figueroa also has serious concerns about illegal immigration and believes the Democratic Party has no credible plan or resolve to secure the country. She feels grassroots energy on the side of her presidential candidate and anticipates Bucks County contributing to a Trump victory in Pennsylvania and catapulting him back to the White House.

Republicans and Democrats on Thursday feverishly organized in Doylestown, the county seat and jumping off point for both parties to making vital voter contact in the closing days of this Nov. 5th election cycle.

Senator Steve Santarsiero chairs the Bucks County Democratic Party, and he is confident about Harris’ chances here and what that means for her shot at securing Pennsylvania. While Republicans have a 3K voter registration advantage and made-up ground to close a 10K deficit they had in 2020, Democrats still control county government. Right now, they have a robust GOTV program reflected in a 53.8-32.8% ballot request advantage over the GOP. Among returned ballots, Democrats are running 22K better than their Republican rivals.

“Our volunteers have knocked on 56K doors,” Santarsiero told InsiderNJ in this county energized in

part by women fighting back against the Trump Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.  The chairman/senator spoke favorably of Harris’ candidacy in Bucks. “There’s no question about it,” he said, referring to voters noticeably galvanized (see photo, top) when Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and the vice president became the candidate.

“People have been coming out to events, like our annual Roosevelt Dinner, which was extremely well attended, where the energy was like nothing I’ve seen since 2008 [when Barack Obama] ran for president,” Santarsiero said.

All up and down York Road, the signs point to Pennsylvania’s battleground implications, intensifying to blue the closer one gets to more populated areas, and reddening on the rural back streets, and around the big estates, with plenty of overlap everywhere and time running out in Harris versus Trump 2024.