With only one race yet to be decided, it appears the makeup of the Pennsylvania Senate will remain unchanged after Tuesday’s elections. Republicans currently hold a majority of eight seats with 28 sitting senators compared to 22 for Democrats.
Democrats had hoped to make a far-reaching effort to flip the upper chamber, and Gov. Josh Shapiro endorsed enough candidates to create an even split in the Senate. But Republicans successfully repelled their challenges.
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R-Ind.) did not respond to questions Wednesday.
“Going into the November election, we had a very strong, united caucus,” said Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa (D-Allegheny). “We haven’t gone backwards in the cycle since 2016, so we’re still moving forward and will hold or take places.”
One seat has flipped from Republican to Democrat, but another in Northeast Philadelphia, where votes are still being counted, may move the other way, show unofficial results
The seat flipped by the Democrat represents the 15th Senate District, which includes Harrisburg and Dauphin County. In 2023, incumbent Republican John DiSanto, chairman of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, announced that he will not seek re-election.
Rep. Patty Kim (D–Dauphin), who has served in the statehouse since 2012, won a landslide victory in the April Senate primary. According to unofficial results, she defeated Republican challenger Nick DiFrancesco on Tuesday.
In Northeast Philadelphia, where the 5th District Senate election has not yet been called, 29-year-old Republican challenger Joe Picozzi has a chance to become the only state Senate candidate to defeat an incumbent in this election. As of Wednesday afternoon, he led Democratic Sen. Jimmy Dillon by less than 1%.
Picozzi led a robust ground campaign. He estimated his team knocked on 70,000 doors on Election Day. He did this without the formal support of the city’s Republican Party. However, the Pennsylvania Senate Republican Campaign Committee endorsed him.
“If you want to see change, if you don’t like the direction that Northeast Philadelphia is going, then please consider me and give me a chance,” Picozzi told the Capital-Star on Tuesday in a summary of his closing message. “I will work hard to turn things around.”
Picozzi said that when talking to voters, the top issues were crime and cost of living. If declared the winner, he would be the first Republican to represent the district since 2001.
Dillon, however, had the support of the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police and held the position after winning a special election in 2022. He was also the subject of controversy when the Pennsylvania Senate Republican Campaign Committee accused him of tweeting containing racist and homophobic language in slow September. The tweets came from a basketball academy account run by Dillon, although Dillon said they were written by players.
The results of Tuesday’s Senate races fell far tiny of Democratic expectations. In early October Shapiro submitted four annotations in Pennsylvania Senate races. If all candidates won and no incumbent was defeated, there would be a tie in the chamber. Lt. Gov. Austin Davis would cast the tiebreaking vote.
Both candidates running for open seats were successful, Kim in the 15th District and Nick Pisciottano in the 45th, which covers part of Allegheny County. However, unofficial results show that the two Shapiro-endorsed candidates who faced incumbents Nicole Ruscitto and Jim Wertz lost.
State Senate Democrats outperformed their party members at the top of the ticket. Republicans won every presidential election and every statehouse. No winner has been announced in the race for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and GOP challenger Dave McCormick
