Elections in Pennsylvania

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Elections in Pennsylvania elect the five state-level offices, the Pennsylvania General Assembly, including the senate and house of representatives, as well as the state's congressional delegation for the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. Presidential elections are held every four years in Pennsylvania. Considered a swing state, it is one of the most competitive nationally, with narrow victories that alternate between the parties across all major offices. On the presidential level, the state has voted for the nationwide loser on only 10 occasions (1824, 1884, 1892, 1912, 1916, 1932, 1948, 1968, 2000, and 2004), meaning it has voted for the national winner 83% of the time, as of 2020.

Contents

In a 2020 study, Pennsylvania was ranked by the Election Law Journal as the 19th hardest state for citizens to vote in, based on registration and identification requirements, and convenience provisions. [1]

House of Representatives

Pennsylvania's congressional delegation is composed of nine Democrats and eight Republicans, since the 2022 elections.

The five most recent House elections:

Presidential elections

Below is a table of Pennsylvania's majority vote in the last twelve presidential elections, alongside the national electoral college results. On the presidential level, the state has voted for the nationwide loser on only 10 occasions – 1824, 1884, 1892, 1912, 1916, 1932, 1948, 1968, 2000, and 2004 – meaning it has voted for the national winner 83% of the time, as of 2020. Beginning with the 1992 election, the state has leaned Democratic, voting that way in seven of the nine elections from that year, though mostly by margins under 10 points.

Vote in PennsylvaniaNational vote
YearCandidateYearCandidate
1980 Ronald Reagan 1980 Ronald Reagan
1984 Ronald Reagan 1984 Ronald Reagan
1988 George H. W. Bush 1988 George H. W. Bush
1992 Bill Clinton 1992 Bill Clinton
1996 Bill Clinton 1996 Bill Clinton
2000 Al Gore 2000 George W. Bush
2004 John Kerry 2004 George W. Bush
2008 Barack Obama 2008 Barack Obama
2012 Barack Obama 2012 Barack Obama
2016 Donald Trump 2016 Donald Trump
2020 Joe Biden 2020 Joe Biden
2024 Donald Trump 2024 Donald Trump

United States Senate elections

Class I Senate elections

The five most recent elections:

Class III Senate elections

The five most recent elections:

Republican Senator Dave McCormick entered office in 2025 after defeating Bob Casey Jr in the 2024 election. Democratic senator John Fetterman entered office in January 2023, succeeding Republican Pat Toomey who retired after two terms.

Gubernatorial elections

Gubernatorial election results [2]
Year Democratic Republican
1950 48.3% 1,710,35550.7%1,796,119
1954 53.7%1,996,26646.2% 1,717,070
1958 50.8%2,024,85248.9% 1,948,769
1962 44.3% 1,938,62755.3%2,424,918
1966 46.1% 1,868,71952.1%2,110,349
1970 55.2%2,043,02941.7% 1,542,854
1974 53.7%1,878,25245.1% 1,578,917
1978 46.4% 1,737,88852.5%1,996,042
1982 48.1% 1,772,35350.8%1,872,784
1986 50.4%1,717,48448.4% 1,638,268
1990 67.7%2,065,24432.4% 987,516
1994 39.9% 1,430,09945.4%1,627,976
1998 31.0% 938,74557.4%1,736,844
2002 53.4%1,913,23544.4% 1,589,408
2006 60.3%2,470,51739.6% 1,622,135
2010 45.5% 1,814,78854.5%2,172,763
2014 54.9%1,920,35545.1% 1,575,511
2018 57.8%2,850,21040.7% 2,015,266
2022 56.5%3,031,13741.7% 2,238,477

The ten most recent elections:

Democrats and Republicans have alternated in the governorship of Pennsylvania every eight years from 1950 to 2010. [3] This has been referred to as "the cycle", [4] [5] but it was broken with a Democratic Party win in 2014. Pennsylvania has also voted against the party of the sitting president in 19 of the last 21 gubernatorial contests dating back to 1938; Democrats lost 16 of the previous 18 Pennsylvania gubernatorial races with a Democratic president in the White House, a pattern begun in 1860. [6]

Pennsylvania General Assembly elections

The Pennsylvania General Assembly is a bicameral legislature, consisting of the Pennsylvania State Senate (the upper house) and the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (lower house). Members of the state house serve for 2 year terms, while the term for the state senate is 4 years. There are no limits on the amount of terms that members of the state legislature can serve. Republicans controlled the state House for all but four years from 1995 until 2023, and they have controlled the state Senate uninterrupted since 1993.

Senate

The five most recent elections:

House of Representatives

The five most recent elections:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Schraufnagel, Scot; Pomante II, Michael J.; Li, Quan (15 Dec 2020). "Cost of Voting in the American States: 2020". Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy. 19 (4): 503–509. doi: 10.1089/elj.2020.0666 . S2CID   225139517 . Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  2. ↑ Leip, David. "General Election Results – Pennsylvania". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections . Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  3. ↑ Barone, Michael (2014). The Almanac of American Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 1398. ISBN   9780226105444.
  4. ↑ Madonna, Terry. "The Eight-Year Cycle - Believe It!". Franklin & Marshall College. Archived from the original on February 1, 2014. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
  5. ↑ Baer, John M. (2012). On the Front Lines of Pennsylvania Politics. Charleston: The History Press. p. 71. ISBN   9781609497156.
  6. ↑ Ostermeier, Eric (August 26, 2013). "Pennsylvania Democrats Hope to Reverse History in 2014 Gubernatorial Race". Smart Politics.
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