Campaigns & Elections
By a wide margin: The biggest ballot blowouts in PA guv races
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s victory over Stacy Garrity, as dominant as it was, doesn’t even make the Top 3 gubernatorial blowouts in state history
The Pennsylvania Governor’s Mansion Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images
When then-Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro beat his Republican opponent, Doug Mastriano, in 2022, he did so in an unprecedented way: His 15-point margin of victory was the largest by a non-incumbent gubernatorial candidate in the state since 1946, and he received 3 million votes – a record for the office.
But as Olympian Michael Phelps said, “records are always made to be broken.” Shapiro’s overwhelming 20-point defeat of his Republican opponent, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, represented the largest margin of victory since Democratic incumbent Gov. Robert P. Casey beat GOP challenger and state Auditor General Barbara Hafer by 35.7 points.
As dominating as those wins were, they pale in comparison to gubernatorial races of yore in the commonwealth, including:
- In 1796, the Democrat-Republican Thomas Mifflin beat his Federalist opponent, Frederick Muhlenberg, by 93 points
- In 1811, the Democratic-Republican incumbent Simon Snyder enjoyed an 87-point margin of victory over William Tilghman
- In 1826, the Democratic-Republican incumbent John Andrew Shulze beat his Federalist opponent, John Sergeant, by an almost-94-point margin – a record that still stands.
And while this is a landmark victory for Democrats, who have never before occupied the Governor’s Mansion for four consecutive terms, there are still a few years to go before they can overtake Republicans’ record of winning 10 straight gubernatorial races, from 1894 to 1930.