Despite votes still being counted across the Commonwealth at the time of the writing of this article, enough of the votes have been counted to confirm results in statewide elections. Now, the balance of power in Pennsylvania shifts from a complete control by the Democrats in all four offices to an even two-two split between Democrats and Republicans.
The first office, Governor and Lieutenant Governor (elected together) were not up for reelection this cycle; therefore, Tom Wolf and John Fetterman maintain the seats for the Democrats. The other three offices were on the ballot last week.
For Attorney General, Democrat Josh Shapiro pulled off a narrow victory over challenger Heather Heidelbaugh. Early returns on election night had Democrats worrying their likely candidate for Governor in 2022 was going to lose, as Heidelbaugh led Shapiro in ballots cast on election day approximately 2.5 million to Shapiro’s approximate 1.5 million. However, as with many Democrats across the country, mail-in ballots came to the sitting Attorney General’s avail, as he won them by a ratio of over 3:1. It was these ballots that put Josh Shapiro over the 50 percent needed to secure victory, but not by much, winning the race 50.65 percent to 46.56 percent.
The third statewide elected office is Auditor General. The campaign was left with no incumbent as former Auditor General Eugene DePasquale declined to run for reelection in favor of running for Congress. Therefore, the election pitted Democrat Nina Ahmad against Republican Timothy Defoor. Much like the Attorney General race, in-person voters produced a strong showing for Defoor, more than doubling the number of votes cast for Ahmad. Yet, unlike other races, mail-in ballots were not enough for the Democrats. Despite winning those votes approximately 1.8 million to approximately 700,000, Defoor’s in-person lead was too much for Ahmad, making him the next Auditor General of Pennsylvania 49.68 percent to Ahmad’s 46.12 percent.
The final race was between Democrat Joe Torsella and Republican Stacy Garrity for State Treasurer. The incumbent Torsella was favored to win the election, but, as of a month ago, a whopping 10 percent of voters were still undecided. It seems that, in the intervening weeks, those undecided voters broke in favor of Garrity. Almost exactly the same as the Auditor General’s race, Garrity trounced Torsella in terms of in-person voting, approximately 2.6 million to approximately 1.3 million, and despite Torsella receiving approximately 1.8 million mail-in votes, he could not catch the Trump-endorsed Garrity. In an extremely narrow victory, Garrity defeated Torsella 48.92 percent to 47.70 percent. Garrity and Defoor’s victories will create a complicated final two years for Tom Wolf’s term.
There were also significant races for the Commonwealth’s delegation to Congress. As previously stated, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale sought to unseat Republican incumbent Scott Perry in PA-10. DePasquale won the Dauphin County section of the district but underperformed in the York and Cumberland County sections. Democrats had their eyes on the PA-10 as a possible flip, but, in the end, Perry defeated DePasquale 53.4 percent to 46.6 percent. While Democrats focused on the PA-10, Republicans set their sights on the PA-8 (Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike and Wayne Counties) and its Democratic incumbent Rep. Matt Cartwright. As a challenger, Republicans nominated Jim Bognet, a former Trump Administration official and native of Hazelton. Bognet ran on a campaign attempting to paint Cartwright as a radical who voted to impeach Donald Trump. However, it was to no avail, Matt Cartwright defeated Bognet 51.7 percent to 48.3 percent. In other Congressional races, incumbents held on to power, making Pennsylvania’s delegation nine Democrats and nine Republicans in the House with one Democrat (Bob Casey) and one Republican (Pat Toomey) in the Senate.
