This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

It was a tough election night for a lot of congressional incumbents in the commonwealth. Rob Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie, both Republican challengers to sitting Democrats, came out on top as part of the red wave. Bresnahan, who defeated six-term U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, will take over the 8th congressional seat while Mackenzie, who defeated U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, will take over the Lehigh Valley’s 7th congressional seat.

Republican candidates swept Pennsylvania’s three statewide row offices that were up for grabs on this year’s ballot, with York County District Attorney Dave Sunday elected as the commonwealth’s next attorney general, and voters choosing to send Treasurer Stacy Garrity and Auditor General Tim DeFoor back to Harrisburg, as well. The wins add to the GOP’s slate of victories in races for Congress, and at least one surprise win in the General Assembly, but more on that below. 

When Republican Joe Picozzi launched his longshot bid to flip Northeast Philadelphia’s 5th state Senate district, few imagined the challenge was serious – let alone that the 29-year-old, absent support from the city GOP, would parlay social-media savvy into Philadelphia’s only Republican Senate seat. But on Tuesday, Picozzi might have done just that – pulling slightly ahead of the Democratic incumbent, Jimmy Dillon, in a race whose votes have yet to be fully counted.

Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off her presidential campaign in Philadelphia in July, and she ended it on the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum, capping off Tuesday’s five-city statewide sweep – and signaling how fundamental the Keystone State was to her strategy. Alas, despite a significant ground effort – notably in Southeast’s Latino  strongholds – Harris lost Pennsylvania by a wider-than-anticipated margin, 2%, hours before Trump’s win was secured…and took down-ballot commonwealth Democrats with her.

There are already many differing accounts of what the 2024 presidential election means for President Joe Biden’s legacy, but it’s hard to argue that President-elect Donald Trump’s resounding win is anything but a direct repudiation of how Americans felt about the last four years. While Biden’s signature legislative achievements on infrastructure, COVID relief and climate and clean energy will have impacts that last beyond his single term, Trump’s second stint in the White House could spell doom for some of Biden’s executive efforts.

The fingerpointing within the Democratic Party has already hit hard in Philly. The city’s Democratic party chair, Bob Brady, claimed money was an issue and criticized the Harris campaign for a lack of funding. In response, the Harris campaign sharply criticized Brady, who is now facing his own critics in the ability to turn Democrats out after several disappointing turnouts in a row.