Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

By Christopher Harper

Donald Trump had a lousy night in Pennsylvania.

Two top candidates he endorsed—Mehmet Oz for U.S. Senate and Doug Mastriano for governor—went down in flames in a state critical for any presidential candidate.

In 2016, Trump won Pennsylvania and its electoral votes by a hair. In 2020, Biden won.

What’s discouraging about the election is how mediocre the Democrat candidates were.

John Fetterman makes Bernie Sanders look like a right-winger. He served as a mayor in a small town near Pittsburgh and somehow became lieutenant governor. He suffered a stroke earlier this year and has had problems understanding questions and providing answers.

Still, he beat TV personality Oz by more than 100,000 votes in a 50-48 percent vote. Oz wasn’t a great campaigner, but he talked an excellent conservative line.

In the governor’s race, Democrat Josh Shapiro, the state attorney general, won handily despite Mastriano being a true conservative and solid Trump supporter.

Shapiro won by more than 600,000 votes in a 55-43 percent landside.

Fetterman and Shapiro outpolled Biden’s 2020 results in both races, particularly in the crucial suburbs around Philadelphia.

With party hack Bob Casey not up for reelection until 2024, the Democrats hold all the top positions in Pennsylvania for the first time in decades. Moreover, the U.S. House contingent will likely favor the Democrats, 9-8.

Fortunately, the Republicans will hold onto both houses of the state legislature. Unfortunately, the GOP doesn’t have enough votes to override vetoes.

The Pennsylvania results are worth dissecting because the state mirrors almost every aspect of the national electorate. Two major cities—Pittsburgh and Philadelphia—vote primarily Democrat, with a sprinkling of other outposts in the state. Almost every county, including mine, votes heavily Republican between the two coasts.

Alas, the votes in Pennsylvania flyover country weren’t enough to counter those in the cities.

Republicans have some significant issues ahead if they couldn’t break through in places where inflation, crime, and COVID chaos have dominated the conversation over the past few months.