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. The state 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 been considered a swing state throughout its entire history as it only 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.

In a 2020 study, Pennsylvania was ranked by the Election Law Journal as the 19th hardest state for citizens to vote in.[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 the last eleven presidential elections in Pennsylvania, as well as national electoral college results. On the presidential level, the state has been considered a swing state throughout its entire history as it only 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. However, since the 1992 election, the state has leaned Democratic, voting that way in seven of the eight elections since then, although mostly by margins under 10 points.

Vote in PennsylvaniaNational vote
YearCandidateYearCandidate
1980Ronald Reagan1980Ronald Reagan
1984Ronald Reagan1984Ronald Reagan
1988George H. W. Bush1988George H. W. Bush
1992Bill Clinton1992Bill Clinton
1996Bill Clinton1996Bill Clinton
2000Al Gore2000George W. Bush
2004John Kerry2004George W. Bush
2008Barack Obama2008Barack Obama
2012Barack Obama2012Barack Obama
2016Donald Trump2016Donald Trump
2020Joe Biden2020Joe Biden

United States Senate elections

Class I Senate elections

The five most recent elections:

Class III Senate elections

The five most recent elections:


Senator Bob Casey Jr. (serving since 2007) is the first Democrat to be popularly elected as a senator by Pennsylvania voters to more than two terms. 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% 1,710,355 50.7% 1,796,119
1954 53.7% 1,996,266 46.2% 1,717,070
1958 50.8% 2,024,852 48.9% 1,948,769
1962 44.3% 1,938,627 55.3% 2,424,918
1966 46.1% 1,868,719 52.1% 2,110,349
1970 55.2% 2,043,029 41.7% 1,542,854
1974 53.7% 1,878,252 45.1% 1,578,917
1978 46.4% 1,737,888 52.5% 1,996,042
1982 48.1% 1,772,353 50.8% 1,872,784
1986 50.4% 1,717,484 48.4% 1,638,268
1990 67.7% 2,065,244 32.4% 987,516
1994 39.9% 1,430,099 45.4% 1,627,976
1998 31.0% 938,745 57.4% 1,736,844
2002 53.4% 1,913,235 44.4% 1,589,408
2006 60.3% 2,470,517 39.6% 1,622,135
2010 45.5% 1,814,788 54.5% 2,172,763
2014 54.9% 1,920,355 45.1% 1,575,511
2018 57.8% 2,850,210 40.7% 2,015,266
2022 56.5% 3,031,137 41.7% 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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