PA political party chairs focusing on 2026

After Republicans won across the board in Pennsylvania in the 2024 election cycle, Democratic wins in 2025 sent shockwaves through the Pennsylvania political landscape ahead of a closely watched midterm election cycle in 2026. 

With congressional seats, the governor’s mansion and control of the Pennsylvania General Assembly on the line next year, City & State spoke with Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chair Eugene DePasquale and state Sen. Greg Rothman, the chair of the Pennsylvania GOP, in separate interviews to get their thoughts on recent judicial election results, as well as what both parties need to do to be successful next year. 

The following excerpts have been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

What are your top strategic goals as chair?

Eugene DePasquale: No. 1 is win. But beyond that, it’s really two things. No. 1 is to re-engage with some of the voters we weren’t listening to in 2024, maybe even earlier, to try to rebuild the constituency of the party. Also, getting back into partisan voter registration: A lot of the party apparatus over not just the last year or two, but really the last decade or so, was focused on just voter registration – period. Republicans were probably rightly focused on registering Republicans. 

Greg Rothman: No. 1 was voter registration. We’re making gains. We’ve made tremendous gains on voter registration. 2024 was the best election for Republicans in Pennsylvania in my lifetime. We won five statewide elections. It’s unheard of – swept the row officers, elected Dave McCormick – a huge upset of Bob Casey – and Donald Trump won Pennsylvania, became the president. That’s a high ceiling. There’s not much further you can go up from that. I’m well aware that we’re going to have to maintain that. 

There’s two ways to go. We go back to the normal cycle where we stay a purple state, or we make Pennsylvania a solidly red state like Ohio and Florida. That’s our objective. We want Pennsylvania to be a red state. It’s going to take more than just getting parity on registration. We’ve got a lot of work to do to get to that point, but it doesn’t happen overnight. So the biggest thing is voter registration. The next thing is to drive out the votes. As this election has proven, it’s hard to get our voters as excited in off-year or midterm elections.

What do you make of how Pennsylvania’s judicial races played out?

ED: Across the board, if you go from the Ohio border to the New Jersey border, from the New York border to the West Virginia-Maryland border, there are really three things going on. No. 1 is, I think there was a complete rejection of the president and high prices, tariffs, chaos and divisiveness. I think that was clearly part of this. I think there was also a rejection of MAGA billionaires, and I think that particularly played out in the Supreme Court race. 

Then it was just overall general Democratic enthusiasm of doing something to push back against the Trump administration, which led to – it’s not a record-breaking turnout when you compare it to other elections –  but when you look at it being an odd-year election, it was unusually high turnout – those things led to what can only be described as a historic day.

GR: Keep in mind that the last Democratic retention race was Debra Todd – got 76% of the vote, and we’re at 61% in this. I’m never one who’s okay with “We got close.” We performed better than last time, but we knew it would be challenging. We were outspent 3-1 or 4-1, and we spent a lot of time talking about the judicial race – the No, No, No campaign – to our people. 

Sometimes you just get caught up in a wave in either way. But in close elections where everything’s equally matched, what we do makes a difference. Our candidates make a difference. Our ground game makes a difference. 

We have an issue in the Republican Party; we don’t have the money the Democrats do. Traditional groups that support Republicans didn’t engage, and they didn’t write checks. The business community used to give money to the Republican Party. We didn’t get it. The NRA didn’t engage in the judicial races. Like, why not? So that’s on us, though, and we’ve got to make a better case. 

What does your party need to do to be successful in the 2026 gubernatorial race?

ED: First of all, nobody is more disciplined than Gov Josh Shapiro. I think he’s as smart as they come and he’s as disciplined as they come. You’re starting off with a very good approval rating, with a candidate who works his tail off, is a good governor. The Republicans may have a battle for the nomination where, if they do, I think that will push the eventual nominee well to the right of the mainstream of the electorate. We cannot take that for granted. 

I think as a party apparatus, it’s about holding – whether it’s (current state treasurer) Stacy Garrity or (2022 gubernatorial nominee Doug) Mastriano – accountable. Stacy Garrity could have just simply been the state treasurer, talked about the mechanics of state government, but she weighed in on the no vote …She weighed in on, for the lack of a better phrase, the Big, Beautiful Bill – she weighed in on those where she didn’t have to. So she owns a big chunk of this Trump record, and particularly on weighing in on the yes/no, I thought that was a huge mistake on her part. 

So we’re going to be holding Stacy Garrity or Doug Mastriano accountable on that, while at the same time focusing on Gov. Shapiro’s record and vision, which is solutions to Pennsylvania problems, cutting taxes for seniors – particularly property taxes – and historic investments in education. We’re obviously talking about making the government work right when it comes to I-95 and doing similar infrastructure investments. When push comes to shove, he is willing to take bold leadership when he can’t get action from the legislature. That’s going to be on display to the voters, while also holding Garrity and Mastriano accountable for their embrace of the Trump agenda, which, clearly, at least this past November election, was wholly rejected.

GR: The contrast is important. There will have to be a contrast between Stacy Garrity and Josh Shapiro. Josh Shapiro is maybe one of the best politicians we’ve ever seen. He really is exceptional at making it about him. We have a history in Pennsylvania of some major upsets – Bob Casey beat Bill Scranton, Harris Wofford beat Dick Thornburgh, Rick Santorum beat Harris Wofford, Stacy Garrity beat Joe Torsella, Dave McCormick beat Bob Casey. The voters in Pennsylvania know what they’re doing. There have been bigger upsets than Stacy Garrity beating Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania history, and it can always happen. 

What should voters know about your respective candidates for governor and their records?

ED: I think education is going to be a huge part. I think when you’re the governor, overall, are you running a good state of affairs? I think about my mom, who is a Democrat but doesn’t pay a lot of attention to politics; she’ll simply say he’s doing a good job, he knows what he’s doing. You’re starting off with generally good feelings about that. Focusing on that agenda – education, defending reproductive freedom, infrastructure investments, cutting taxes for seniors, fighting to make people’s lives more affordable – is going to be the positive side of the campaign.

GR: She’s really, in many cases, the opposite of Josh Shapiro. She’s not a politician. She had a career in the military, was a colonel, had three different deployments in three different arenas in combat. She was a successful businessperson who worked in manufacturing and for a large corporation. The first time she ever ran for office, I’m pretty sure it was for treasurer against Joe Torsella, who was very popular and well-funded. He spent 10 or 11 times as much as she did, and she won. Then, when she won in 2024, she was the No. 1 vote-getter – she got more votes than anybody in the history of the commonwealth. 

Of course, the governor has more name recognition. He has 28 staffers handling communication. I mean, he literally is everywhere. He’s doing ribbon-cuttings, it’s remarkable. I’m a political animal, I think that’s great. He should take credit for everything. That’s what they do, but at some point, he needs to actually show some leadership. Not getting a budget done … that’ll be a knock on him. If we don’t change the trajectory of Pennsylvania, he’s going to be a governor who watched, in real time, our population decrease. A number of working Pennsylvanians and young people are leaving. 

Now, I believe that he wants to turn Pennsylvania around. I know he wants to see Pennsylvania succeed. I don’t question that one bit. But the policies of RGGI, higher energy costs, regulations, increased taxes and not figuring out a way for us to be fiscally responsible are going to hurt. 

What are the biggest issues you’re hearing about from Pennsylvania residents?

ED: I think nationally, and even in Pennsylvania, it's gonna be an affordability campaign. The cost of healthcare is going up, the cost of prescription drugs is going up, the cost of groceries is going up. I know some of this is on the Fed, but really, the cost of being a first-time home buyer is still out of reach for so many young Pennsylvanians and young Americans. I think that’s going to be the crux of this election, while at the same time, obviously, we’re going to make sure that we’re being clear that abortion rights are still on the ballot and quality education is still on the ballot. 

GR: There’s still an affordability issue. People are concerned about the demographics. While we’re losing young people and workers, we’re becoming an older population. We love our grandparents; they’re making up a larger part of our population, and you need that balance. The rural areas are experiencing population decline, and I think things are tougher than perhaps we in our government bubble realize.

There are a lot of people still living paycheck to paycheck and worried about the price of food. They’re noticing the costs. I actually think that in the long term, the tariffs are better for us, but there’s a shock to the system that, if you’ve been buying stuff from China, you’re going to see. You're going to see the prices go up, and that affects all of us. Maybe we needed more of a smoothing, where President Trump would say, “Okay, we’re going to subsidize some of the costs that you have, because you’re going to see increased costs.” 

We’re still recovering from COVID, and we still need more people in the labor force. You still see “Help Wanted” signs everywhere. The cost of housing … we still need more supply. We still need more. What we need is productivity. That’s how you grow the economy is to produce more, not redistribute more.