Pa. Democrats gain ground in Trump counties following election

Democrats scored wins in parts of Pennsylvania that supported President Donald Trump during the 2024 election.

In statewide and county and municipal races across Pennsylvania, voters went blue after previously voting for President Donald Trump. Pickups across the state could indicate a rejection of the White House and the Republican Party’s agenda. 

“It clearly shows the momentum is on our side, and the voters are giving us a chance because there was a clear rejection of the extremism and chaos of Washington,” Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chair Eugene DePasquale told The Keystone. 

He explained that Tuesday’s results were a repudiation of the current administration, and also a repudiation of Pennsylvania’s richest billionaire, Jeffrey Yass. 

“ I think it was, clearly. Obviously we have a lot of work to do to fully rebuild trust with the voters. This is one step. The other thing was the rejection of a mega-billionaire trying to buy the court system,” DePasquale said. 

Yass, who has a net worth of $65.7 billion thanks to his investments in TikTok, spent roughly $3.5 million to trick constituents into voting against the retention of the three Democratic Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices on the ballot. 

Those efforts failed. 

Further down the ballot, Democrats won statewide judicial races for Commonwealth and Superior Courts, but the main story on Tuesday night were the victories Democrats piled up in counties Trump won in 2024. 

For the first time ever, Democrats defeated the incumbent District Attorney and Sheriff in Bucks County, while in Erie, Christine Vogel defeated the County Executive Brenton Davis by 25%. 

“When you get below the surface, I think that’s the story. What you saw in Cumberland, Dauphin, Northampton, Bucks, and Erie—and in Erie and Bucks specifically—were just blowout raids against incumbents,” DePasquale said. 

He added, “ I don’t think anyone saw the incumbent [district attorney] not being able to win a judgeship in Dauphin County.”

Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo lost his judicial election to two Democrats on Tuesday, marking the first time in 30 years that a Democrat will serve as a county Court of Common Pleas Judge.

DePasquale credited some of the enthusiasm and voter turnout numbers to outreach strategies the Pennsylvania Democratic Party is taking to engage voters. 

“We had a specific strategy to ramp that up using digital techniques, mail, texting and phone calls  that were also deployed by several county parties and the individual candidates. I think the days are gone where we’re not gonna be competing on digital and streaming,” DePasquale said.

“The one thing the Trump campaign showed is the effectiveness of those tools. So we certainly were competing in a heavy way on those platforms.”