The party was founded on November 27, 1854, in Towanda, Pennsylvania, by former Congressman David Wilmot. Wilmot invited political leaders and a small group of friends to the organization's first meeting, which took place in his home. Notable attendees included U.S. Senator Simon Cameron, Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, Colonel Alexander McClure, and future governor Andrew Curtin. Wilmot convinced the group to form local Republican clubs in their home counties.[2]
Following the 1856 election, Pennsylvania Republicans reorganized as the People's Party. The change in name helped to welcome former Know Nothings who had supported Millard Fillmore over the Republican presidential candidate, John C. Frémont. The People's Party sent delegates to the 1860 Republican National Convention, where they voted for Simon Cameron on the first ballot. During the Civil War, leaders in the People's Party joined War Democrats to organize the Union Party. After 1868, the party was known as the National Union Republican, or simply Republican.[3]
George I. Bloom made the Republican Party a statewide organization in 1959. He had the headquarters located in Harrisburg, where it remains to this day.[2]
Overview
Pennsylvania was politically dominated by the Democratic Party until around 1856. This is at least partially attributed to the desire of many in the state to promote its growing industries by raising taxes. From the period immediately preceding the Civil War until the mid-1930s, political dominance in the state largely rested with the Republican Party. The party was led by a series of bosses, including Simon Cameron, J. Donald Cameron, Matthew Quay, and Boies Penrose.[4] Quay in particular was one of the dominant political figures of his era, as he served as chairman of the Republican National Committee and helped place Theodore Roosevelt on the 1900 Republican ticket.[5] Republican dominance was ended by the growing influence of labor and urbanization, and the implementation of the New Deal.[6] However, even after the New Deal, Republicans remained competitive in the state.
Governorship
During the period from the Civil War until the start of the Great Depression, Republican gubernatorial administrations outnumbered Democratic administrations by a margin of sixteen to two. The first Republican governor was elected in 1860, and there was a Republican governor until 1882. The governorship alternated between Republican and Democratic every term until 1894. From 1894 until 1934, Republicans held an unbroken grip on the governor's office. Democrat George Howard Earle III held the governorship for one term, from 1935 to 1939, after which Republicans held the governorship until the 1954 election of state senator George M. Leader. Democrats continued to hold the governorship into 1963, following the 1958 election of Pittsburgh mayorDavid L. Lawrence, who succeeded Leader. Republicans Bill Scranton and Ray Shafer followed Lawrence. In 1968, state law was changed to allow governors to run for a second consecutive four-year term. However, in the 1970 election, Democrat Milton Shapp defeated Shafer's lieutenant governor, Ray Broderick. Shapp was re-elected over Republican nominee Drew Lewis in 1974.[7]
Republicans held both of Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate seats from 1968 to 1991. In 1991, after the death of senator John Heinz, a special election was held. In the election, former Kennedy administration official and Democrat Harris Wofford defeated former Republican governor Dick Thornburgh, who resigned as president George H. W. Bush's attorney general to run in the election. The Republican defeat was considered to be a major upset. Wofford went on to be defeated in his bid for a full six-year term in 1994 by Republican Congressman Rick Santorum. Republicans would hold both of Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate seats until Santorum was defeated in his bid for a third term in 2006.[6]
Following the 1994 federal and state elections, Republicans flipped the governorship with the election of Congressman Tom Ridge, regained the majority in both houses of the General Assembly, and gained a majority of the state's Congressional seats. Ridge won re-election to a second term in 1998, defeating his Democratic opponent by 26 percentage points. In 2001, Ridge resigned as governor to take the role of homeland security advisor to president George W. Bush. He was succeeded by lieutenant governor Mark Schweiker. In 2002, Republicans lost the governorship to Democrat Ed Rendell. Schweiker, who was the incumbent Republican governor, decided not to run for re-election.
Two statewide elections took place in 2006. In the U.S. Senate race, Democrat state treasurerBob Casey Jr., son of former popular governor Bob Casey Sr., won, defeating incumbent Republican Rick Santorum. Santorum's margin of defeat was 18 points—the largest for an incumbent Republican senator in state history. In the gubernatorial election, incumbent Democratic governor Ed Rendell won a comfortable re-election over Republican challenger Lynn Swann. Democrats also retook the majority in the State House this year, though the balance of power in the State Senate remained the same.[7]
In 2010, Republican nominee Pat Toomey defeated Democrat Joe Sestak in the U.S. Senate election. Sestak had defeated incumbent senator Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary after Specter, who had been a Republican since his election to the Senate in 1980, switched his party affiliation to Democratic in 2009. Specter's partisan defection had briefly given Democrats control over both of Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate seats for the first time since before the Civil War. In the gubernatorial election, Republican state attorney general Tom Corbett defeated Democrat Dan Onorato. Republicans also retook the majority in the State House, which was captured by Democrats in 2006.[8] Corbett ran for re-election to a second term in 2014, but was defeated by Democrat Tom Wolf. This marked the first time an incumbent Republican governor running for re-election in Pennsylvania lost.[9] Corbett is the last Republican to hold the office of governor.
In 2016, incumbent Republican senator Pat Toomey won re-election to a second term, defeating Democratic challenger Katie McGinty. After Toomey announced in 2020 that he would retire and not seek a third term, Republicans lost the seat to Democrat John Fetterman, who defeated Republican nominee Mehmet Oz in the 2022 general election. Also in 2022, Democrats flipped the State House, while Republicans maintained the majority in the State Senate, which the party has held since 1994.
↑ Reichley, A. James (2000). The Life of the Parties. Rowman & Littlefield. pp.127–131.
1 2 "Pennsylvania History." The Pennsylvania General Assembly. Web. 07 Sept. 2011. .
1 2 Lamis, Renée M. The Realignment of Pennsylvania Politics Since 1960: Two-Party Competition in a Battleground State. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State UP, 2009. Print.
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