The Pennsylvania Republican State Party had egg on its face Tuesday morning after losing a very winnable state Senate seat in a special election. Democrat James Malone edged out Republican Josh Parsons by just over 400 votes.
It was the first test for the new state chairman, Greg Rothman, as the state party leader. Four short months after President Donald Trump comfortably won the state and Lancaster County, he came up very short.
Rothman, to his credit, owned up to the shortcomings.
“This is a wake-up call. We can’t rest on our laurels of last November’s great victories. We can’t be complacent, and we must be unified. We need to keep the intensity of 2024 and fight together for every vote,” he said.
Parsons is the Republican chairman of the county board of commissioners, and Malone is the mayor of East Petersburg Borough. The 36th state Senate seat is in a Trump +15 state Senate district in Lancaster County. Even Malone’s narrow victory is massive for a Democrat.
Pennsylvania Democrats wasted no time dancing on the GOP’s grave. Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) celebrated Malone’s win by posting on X, “Tonight in Lancaster County, Pennsylvanians rejected a candidate who embraced the extremism and division coming out of DC. In a district carried comfortably by Donald Trump just a few months ago, they chose a better way forward — an embrace of competence, commonsense, and a desire to bring people together.”
The win gave Shapiro one less Republican in the state Senate to oppose him.
Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA) posted on X, “Congratulations, Senator elect Malone, I was proud to stump with you in East Petersburg. This is a huge upset and a historic win for a Democrat in a Trump-won district, and we are leading the way in PA.”
Scott Presler, the charismatic and effective conservative activist who has tirelessly registered Republicans in the state for the past few years, warned state Republicans over a week ago that the party was in trouble in the district. Apparently, no one listened to his wise warnings.
Democratic Party organizers outraised Republicans for the race and outperformed them in the absentee ballot returns last week. Republicans were complacent and handed Democrats something to rightly crow about for months.
The early ballot return numbers Presler warned about even got the attention of Elon Musk, who reacted with a “!!” last Friday when Presler posted on X that the party was losing the race.
DEMOCRAT FLIPS RED PENNSYLVANIA STATE SENATE SEAT
Malone was a great candidate for the Democrats and for the district. He was a local mayor with a history of governing, an Army infantry veteran, and a former prosecutor. He and his team ran a very localized race that met the moment, knocking on doors and telling his story.
The special election for the district, which consists of two dozen municipalities, was scheduled after former state Sen. Ryan Aument resigned from the legislature in December to run Sen. Dave McCormick’s (R-PA) state offices.