Democrats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives spent more than $18 million on the election to maintain their majority

HARRISBURG — Campaigners behind both parties in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Senate spent more than $35 million to influence the outcome of last week’s election — nearly half of which was spent by House Democrats to maintain a slim majority as the GOP swept throughout the election country.

House Democrats spent more than $18 million to maintain a one-seat majority in the statehouse for the next two years – Pennsylvania’s only red-wave election success for Democrats.

House Democrats, who came to power by surprise in 2022 based on redistricting legislative maps, spent more than twice as much as House Republicans to stay in power, with the assist of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro. Meanwhile, Republicans redoubled their efforts, winning statewide offices and maintaining a sturdy GOP majority in the state Senate.

Senate Democrats, who failed to achieve their goal of tying the Senate, which remains a 28-22 Republican majority, spent the least, $4.7 million, according to the most recently available campaign finance data.

State legislative races have become increasingly steep in recent years as local officials try to keep up with historic spending in top-ticket races. In this election, House Democrats spent $6 million more than they did in 2022 to flip the House just to maintain the same balance of power, while House Republicans spent $2 million more than they did two years ago – totaling more than $8 million — to try to get the chamber back.

A complete picture of the amount spent to influence elections in Pennsylvania won’t be available until next month, when campaign finance reports are released.

Big spending in the most competitive districts

Every incumbent House member running for re-election remained in last week’s election, but it came at a high cost in competitive districts.

In one race in Cambria County for a seat that ultimately solidified the Democratic majority in the House, Democrats spent more than $3.4 million — or $202 per vote — to hold on to the last open Blue Dog Democratic seat in a district that President-elect Donald won Trump by 35 percentage points. House Republicans spent less than $250,000 trying to flip the seat.

» READ MORE: Democrats maintain a slim majority in the Pennsylvania statehouse amid a red wave

The most steep House races in the Philadelphia region also included the re-election of Republican Sen. Brian Munroe (R-Bucks), a freshman lawmaker who won in his Central Bucks County district over his GOP opponent, Dan McPhillips, when the purple county itself elected Trump.

Democrats spent nearly $1 million on the race, while Republicans spent more than $700,000, most of which came from a powerful PAC backed by Pennsylvania’s richest man, Jeffrey Yass.

In addition to gigantic spending by campaign activists, special interest groups, from labor unions to insurers to environmental groups, invest their money in candidates they believe will advance their interests in the Legislature.

Conservation Voters in Pennsylvania spent more than $300,000 and knocked on “tens of thousands of doors” to campaign for Munroe, said Molly Parzen, executive director of the environmental group.

Conservation group he also spent a lot of money in Upper Bucks County to finance Democrat Eleanor Breslin, who was running against GOP Rep. Shelby Labs. Breslin, an environmental lawyer, “was a case study for the candidate we want to field,” Parzen added. Labs won re-election, but Parzen stated she was still proud of Breslin’s campaign.

In total, Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania spent more than $2.1 million in last week’s election – some of the largest spending by special interest groups outside of workers’ elections – to fund candidates they believe will support its priorities, such as more solar energy projects and increasing the amount of electricity Pennsylvania obtains from immaculate energy sources by 2035.

“We can’t make change in Harrisburg without first electing the right people,” Parzen said. “You can’t have good environmental regulation without good environmental lawmakers.”

“Transactional Business Agreement”

Still, good government groups like March on Harrisburg say unlimited campaign spending and public financing by special interest groups is far-fetched and have been calling for an end to such practices in Pennsylvania for years.

Pennsylvania has no limits on campaign spending or contributions, making it a state with one of the loosest campaign finance laws in the country. This allows national political action committees, interest groups and individuals to contribute any amount of money to state-level campaigns.

It also allows PACs to spend unlimited amounts of money on independent expenses that are separate from the campaign and advocating for or against a candidate or issue. In last week’s Pennsylvania elections, PACs spent more than $15 million on independent state-level spending.

Harrisburg Executive Director Rabbi Michael Pollack said both Democrats and Republicans are giving special treatment to their donors, which is contrary to lawmakers’ job: to be the voice of the people.

“To raise money to run for office, public officials and candidates must auction off their public power to private interests,” Pollack said. “And these private interests always want something in return.”

“Big money interests do not give to politicians out of the goodness of their hearts, they give only because it is a transactional business transaction,” he added.

Celebrations and changes in the State House

Regardless of the cost, House Democrats celebrated their narrow victory Tuesday at a news conference on the steps of the state Capitol, calling it the one radiant spot for their party after Republicans dominated statewide races.

Top House Democrats credited their members with stemming the red tide in their chamber because they were able to get their messages to voters and advocate for their communities, something top-ranked Democrats failed to do.

“Many people woke up Wednesday not knowing what the future holds for this country,” Rep. Jordan Harris (R-Philadelphia), who chairs the powerful Appropriations Committee, said at a news conference. “But amidst the red tide in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania sat a little old blue ship. And this blue ship rode every wave that was thrown towards it.

Meanwhile, House Republicans sought to recalibrate after relatively underperforming and overhauled their leadership. On Tuesday, they introduced their leadership team, led by new House Minority Leader Jesse Topper (R, Bedford). Topper will replace Rep. Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster), who has led the caucus in various roles for the past six years.

Cutler, in announcing he would not seek a leadership position again this legislative session, noted that while Republicans received record support from national conservative groups, “we didn’t win a single seat.”

“I know this is disappointing to everyone, including me,” Cutler wrote in a letter last week. “I understand this leaves us all wanting more and needing to make further changes.”