Last week, 29-year-old political newcomer Joe Picozzi unseated Democratic incumbent Jimmy Dillon in Northeast Philadelphia’s 5th Senate District, becoming the first Republican state senator to win a seat in Philadelphia in two decades. The upset shocked city Democrats, including: some feel sorry for their party for not working to defend Dillon sooner.
Picozzi established himself early on as an energetic, fresh face and campaigning machine – by the end of the season, his campaign had knocked on 70,000 doors. He quickly courted the Senate Republican Campaign Committee (the leadership PAC run by Pennsylvania state senators) and received numerous financial support from them. Conspicuously absent from his endorsement, however, was the Philadelphia GOP; the local party never supported Picozzi.
Two Democratic Party insiders told Billy Penn that the reason for this was a tacit agreement between the Philadelphia GOP and Democratic parties to refrain from challenging each other’s two state-level officials in the Northeast: Philadelphia Republicans won’t look for a candidate who can challenge challenge Dillon, and their Democratic counterparts would not want to challenge Republican House Representative Martina White (whose district overlaps Dillon’s).
“Some efforts have been made to protect Rep. White,” one source said of the agreement, adding that an agreement was likely reached in January 2024, before any primary races. “I think there was some effort to… ‘We’re not going to nudge you if you don’t nudge us’… and I think it’s my understanding that Senate Republicans encouraged Joe Picozzi to run. I think they saw numbers that they thought were positive.
Asked about the Philadelphia Republican Party’s decisions regarding the race, Picozzi said only: “I think all Republicans have to stick together.”
“I have no comment on this matter,” Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward said when asked about the alleged agreement. “I’ll just tell you, you know when [Picozzi] when he started, very few people believed he could actually win the place.
Ward said she had hoped to run a candidate against Dillon, but didn’t find any willing candidates until Picozzi came on her radar. In Philadelphia’s case, the 5th District is conservative, and its voters – including a huge population of firefighters and police officers – have a history of supporting unsuccessful Republican candidates for other offices.
“There were a few bumps in the road,” Ward added. “You know, some people tried to convince him not to run, but they didn’t want him to run. But you know, he just stays focused. That’s what he wanted.”
For his part, Democratic Council member and district leader Michael Driscoll said the level of financial support SRCC gave Picozzi was “unexpected.” The When asked, he reported that total is at least $750,000 but could boost further after post-election campaign finance reports are released at the end of the month.
Dillon refused to talk to Billy Penn.
Looking back
Northeastern Democrats continue to mourn Dillon’s loss. The state senator, who runs a series of basketball academies throughout Philadelphia, won the seat in the 2022 special election. Driscoll praised Dillon’s ability to raise discretionary funds for the district, emphasizing his focus on law enforcement and petite businesses affected by the I-95 collapse.
There’s one thing Democrats and Republicans in the Northeast agree on: Picozzi ran a relentless campaign.
“I don’t know anyone else who has ever knocked on so many doors and walked through so many pairs of tennis shoes in my entire political career,” Ward said. “He wanted it so bad.”
“In my district, he would come to events and he was just so eager and he was surrounded by nice young men and women,” Driscoll said. “So I don’t want to take anything away from how hard he worked.”
Picozzi’s victory was narrow – a total of 50,515 votes were cast and he secured his seat by just 829 more votes than Dillon, as of Tuesday, November 12. Picozzi argued that in such a close race, “a week on the calendar” of knocks on the door could have been the deciding factor in his victory.
The When asked, he reported that some Democratic operatives and elected officials consider the loss an “embarrassing” oversight and believe that state and city party officials did not take Picozzi’s threat of victory seriously or launch a sedate campaign against him until the newcomer had already established a mighty foothold in the district.
Driscoll, however, argued that Dillon’s fall was ultimately to blame for the “red wave” seen in this election, given that Trump also won a majority in the district.
“I think in every campaign I’ve ever worked on, I re-examine every aspect of the campaign. And of course, there is always something that can be done better. But I don’t think it’s unique to this particular breed,” Driscoll said. “I just think it all really fell apart towards the end, you know, until the very end [Republicans]”
Picozzi won in the 57th and 64th districts, where Harris won a majority of the vote, indicating the Republican gained some Democratic support.
Ward said the campaign, which began in March, intentionally stayed hidden for as long as possible.
“We did it very stealthily. Joe knocked on the door. We didn’t pay attention to it,” Ward said, adding that YouTube and Hulu preferred targeted ads over broad-based advertising on cable TV. “We remained at a low level probably until the beginning of October. And yet I didn’t see them do anything for about a week.
Picozzi was particularly savvy on social media Tik Tokand its message focused mainly on the problems of the hyperlocal neighborhood. He said his campaign received special attention immigrant population and placed emphasis on voter registration — clusters reflecting GOP strategy in swing states across the country.
“We reached a lot of first-generation immigrants. I learned to speak a little Russian, I learned basic Spanish,” Picozzi said, adding that he makes sure he is present at community events, such as the opening of a novel Albanian cultural center. “It meant a lot to people.”
“We held many elections [registration]especially in the Eurasian community,” he added. “I would like to do more of this and engage more people in civic activities.”
Democratic District Leader Brian Edis, echoing one of the calls Democrats have made across the country in response to the Republican attack, emphasized that his party needs a renewed commitment to moderating the message. He also advocated greater electoral coverage.
“We have to go back there,” Edis said. “We need to talk to voters in the North East and see what issues are most crucial to them and not let the things we really stand for get lost in translation. And it’s about safety, right, we care about protected neighborhoods, you know, we support the police, we support our first responders. It’s the northeast. We care about our neighborhood, we care about people’s safety, we care about good work.
