It was an early sign of Democrats’ off-year electoral strength when James Malone, the former mayor of East Petersburg, defeated Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons in a March special election. He became the first Democrat to represent Lancaster County in the chamber since 1889.

His victory was only by a mere 529 votes, but it was a shock to many political observers who thought a Democrat would never stand a chance in the race. The win gained national attention.

On Monday evening, Malone (D-Lancaster) officially launched his reelection campaign at Lancaster Distilleries in Columbia Borough.

“In that special election, voters from this community came together to say they were ready for something different,” Malone said. “This campaign isn’t about the noise or the chaos. It’s about neighbors. It’s about making our communities thrive. It’s about making sure Lancaster continues to grow in a way that reflects our values and our future.”

For both Malone, and Pennsylvania Democrats more broadly, the campaign launch was something like planting a flag. Despite the unique circumstances that led to his victory, the state party says it’s ready to help him win again, and are even aiming for the longshot goal of flipping the entire Senate, which is currently controlled by a 27-23 Republican majority.

“We are prepared to marshal every resource necessary,” Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Campaign Committee (SDCC) Chair Vincent Hughes told the Capital-Star. “And anyone who doubts that need only look at the results of the special election in Senator Malone’s seat earlier this year. We won it before. We can win it again. The Trump Agenda carried out by Republicans in Pennsylvania is wildly unpopular and they will answer for that in 2026.”

The 36th District race is likely to be one of the most closely watched in Pennsylvania. While the district voted strongly for Trump, it also went for Gov. Josh Shapiro by a less than 1% margin in 2022, according to data shared by the SDCC.

The path to a Senate majority is narrow, and would likely rely on Democratic Lt. Gov. Austin Davis presiding as a tie-breaker. But Democrats say they believe there are enough vulnerable Republicans up for election, and a favorable enough political environment, to eke out that victory.

Brittany Crampsie, a spokesperson with the SDCC, said along with holding onto Malone’s seat, Democrats are working to flip four other districts. They’d need to win all of them, without losing a single seat, to get a majority.

Specifically, they’re targeting the 6th District, which includes parts of Bucks County and is represented by Sen. Frank Farry (R-Bucks); the 16th District, which contains Lehigh County and is represented by Jarrett Coleman (R-Lehigh) ; the 24th District, which includes parts of Berks and Montgomery Counties and is represented by Tracy Pennycuick (R-Montgomery); and the 40th District which includes Monroe County, and is represented by Rosemary Brown (R-Monroe).

Democrats have reason to be optimistic. A number of Pennsylvania races in November’s municipal elections went their way. And a special election in a strongly Republican congressional district in Tennessee on Tuesday night has shown that momentum for the party remains strong.

While Republican Matt Van Epps won by a comfortable margin, Democrat Aftyn Benn had a surprisingly strong showing.

The district swung from one that voted for Trump by a 22 point margin in 2024, to electing a Republican by only 9 points on Tuesday.

That’s a 13 point shift. All of the Senate Districts Democrats are targeting in 2026 voted for Trump by a smaller margin in 2024, according to data shared by Crampsie.

Republicans, however, see a chance in the 36th District to retake a seat and cement their majority.

“The biggest difference from the 2025 special to the 2026 election is voters will actually know who James Malone is now,” said Michael Straw, the communications director with the Pennsylvania Senate Republican Campaign Committee (SRCC). “They’ll be well-informed about his voting record that has harmed small businesses and doesn’t represent the voters of the 36th Senate district.”

Straw added that Democrats’ recent victories have all come in off-year elections, where turnout is typically low. Only 29% of eligible voters participated in the March special election, relative to the near-80% who voted in the 2024 presidential election, an environment which Republicans believed favored Trump.

But, Republicans aren’t relying on turnout alone.

James Markley, the communications director for the Pennsylvania GOP, began his job on the day of Malone’s special election victory in March.

“It was a whirlwind,” he said and laughed.

Asked how Republicans plan to combat Democrats’ electoral gains since the 2024 election, he said they plan to pull a page from Democrats’ playbook, nodding to their recent victory in the statewide Supreme Court retention elections, which saw voters elected to retain a liberal majority on the bench.

“We saw what happened this November on election day, and we’re gonna be working extremely hard to do what we can to cut into the margins, to do a much better job facilitating and using mail-in ballots,” Markley said.

But, embracing mail-in ballots may mean Pennsylvania Republicans will be fighting against the leader of their national party, President Donald Trump.

“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social media site that he owns, in August. Trump has long opposed mail-in voting and claimed, without evidence, that the practice is rife with fraud.

Still, Markley is optimistic, especially looking at voter registration trends across the commonwealth. While Democrats have maintained higher numbers of registered voters in Pennsylvania for decades, Republicans are starting to catch up.

“The biggest Republican victory in my lifetime in Pennsylvania was 2024,” Markley said. “There’s gonna be some pushback and there’s gonna be some victories for the other side in the next few years. We’re definitely seeing that, but I think Republicans are doing a great job pushing back everywhere they can. If you look at the registration numbers, they’re trending Republicans’ way.”

Another source of confidence for Malone’s team is the sustained popularity of Gov. Josh Shapiro, who will be on the ballot in 2026. Shapiro won his gubernatorial election by a roughly 15 point spread in 2022 against pro-MAGA candidate Doug Mastriano. And his approval rating remains relatively high.

Despite Shapiro eking out a victory in the district, in 2024, voters overwhelmingly chose Trump to be the next president.

Sexton hopes to use Shapiro’s popularity to Malone’s advantage, saying they plan to run “along with the governor.”

“We have good relationships there to do so,” she added. “Plus, we now have the benefit of incumbency.”

A spokesperson for Shapiro’s own reelection campaign did not respond to questions from the Capital-Star about what that might entail, or how Shapiro plans to get involved. In 2024, however, Shapiro was a visible surrogate for both the Biden and Harris presidential campaigns. His PAC also backed all Democratic row office candidates, save one who opposed Shapiro’s vice presidential ambitions.

However, Shapiro faced a far-right and conspiracy-prone candidate, Doug Mastriano, in 2022, who lost by a 15% margin. Now, the leader in the Republican primary race to unseat him is Stacy Garrity, who won reelection as treasurer in 2024 by a larger margin than any statewide candidate.

“A unique individual”

Stella Sexton, Malone’s campaign manager and vice chair of the Lancaster County Democratic Committee, called Malone “a unique individual, who is really the perfect person to have won and to hold this seat.”

She cited his eight years as mayor in East Peterson, a position he wasn’t paid for, and his upbringing in Wyoming.

“He’s not a typical politician,” she said. “He’s from Wyoming and grew up hunting and fishing for subsistence. He knows how to farm. He knows the building trades and put himself through school as a roofer. This is a guy who knows the value of hard work and can relate to people. And people sense that and feel that.”

Sexton said their campaign will focus on issues close to home: affordability, rising housing costs, school funding and supporting first responders.

“People are very concerned about the cost of living,” she said. “People want to be able to live and work in areas where they feel like they have a good home, and they have a good school district to send their kids to. We hear that a lot.”

Malone, who has a background in software development, has also been working in Harrisburg on issues related to artificial intelligence safety. He authored an amendment to a bill regulating sexually explicit deepfake images of children, known as CSAM. He was motivated by an issue in a Lancaster County school where sexually explicit images of students were created with AI and shared without consent. The bill would require teachers and other authority figures to notify investigators when made aware of such images. It passed the Senate unanimously last month.

Malone’s victory in March was something like a proof of concept for the upcoming elections. With Trump’s popularity dwindling since entering office, Democrats believe they can win in unlikely places. Holding the seat, however, in an election year that is likely to have much higher turnout, may be the real test.

Though Sexton sees November’s municipal elections as proof that they can hold on. Manheim Township’s board of commissioners, for instance, is now controlled by Democrats.

“I think we did such a good job of talking about how that was a Trump 15+ District, which it was in 2024, that some folks think, ‘Oh my gosh. How are we gonna win that?’” Sexton said.

But she pointed to Democrats’ victory in the district, with voters supporting the retention of Democratic judges on the Supreme Court.

“We’re seeing some increasing purpling here,” Sexton said. “One of the reasons for that, I think, is that the people in the district — both our candidates and our voters — were energized by [Malone’s] win, and saw a path for themselves, and really worked hard.”

As Republicans face increasingly critical crowds in town halls or avoid them altogether, Rep. Scott Perry (R-10) held a telephone town hall to answer constituents’ questions.

Perry’s event came a week after a Democratic state Senate candidate won a special election in a Trump+15 District in Lancaster County, not far from his own congressional district. And on Tuesday, a liberal candidate for Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court beat a conservative opponent. It was a race widely seen as a referendum on Trump’s agenda, and in particular the role of billionaire megadonor Elon Musk, who poured millions into the contest.

Perry expressed both praise and skepticism of Musk and his role as the figurehead of the Department of Government Efficiency, which has led the Trump administration’s efforts to slash tens of thousands of federal jobs and cancel contracts across federal agencies – usually without warning.

The Republican lawmaker also answered questions on the sweeping tariffs announced by President Donald Trump earlier in the day, efforts to thwart federal judges who have blocked parts of Trump’s agenda, and concerns that Republicans will cut programs like Medicare and Social Security.

The town hall came after weeks of demands for Perry to communicate directly with constituents. He faced some tough questions, but not the rowdy crowds that met other Republicans who held events in person.

As Trump came into office and quickly began slashing federal spending and cutting tens of thousands of jobs, voters in the 10th Congressional District demanded their representative’s ear. Beginning in February, there were protests outside of his district offices. And last month, labor leaders and other advocates held a town hall in his absence at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Conference Center in Swatara Township, Dauphin County, that drew around 150 constituents.

Praise and skepticism of Elon Musk

Multiple callers asked Perry about Musk, who has become one of the most prominent and controversial figures in the Trump administration’s orbit.

Perry, who has echoed many of Musk’s claims of fraud and waste on social media, expressed both praise and skepticism of the entrepreneur-turned-presidential advisor.

Ultimately, he said that it’s been a source of “frustration” that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has not been more transparent about their claims that their sweeping cuts have saved tens of billions of dollars.

His statement was in response to a question about why lawmakers had to raise the debt ceiling, despite Musk’s claimed spending cuts.

“I will tell you, I have a personal frustration, and we have asked, ‘Let’s see the details on DOGE,’” Perry said. “We can’t see granularly at this point. I know there’s a website and it says, ‘We have eliminated this contract’ or ‘We have eliminated this spending.’ But we have to put that in a frame of reference in the appropriations bill to see where that came from.”

Musk’s DOGE has come under fire practically since it started operating, in part because of false or exaggerated claims of savings. Following media fact checks, the New York Times reported that DOGE made changes to its website which made it harder to independently verify claims of savings.

Though that has not stopped Perry from sharing Musk’s unverified claims of finding fraud on social media.

But, he also praised DOGE, and their work identifying inefficiencies in the government’s record-keeping systems. Perry noted those systems are too numerous and struggle to communicate with one another, opening them up to fraud. He also said that he’d like to see DOGE operatives look at how to cut spending in the Medicare and Medicaid programs

“Washington’s been on a reckless spending spree for way too long,” Perry claimed at the top of the call. “That’s why we have to codify many of the cuts proposed under the Department of Government Efficiency, ensuring that we actually reduce the waste and reign in the federal overreach once and for all. Quite honestly, the waste is simply breathtaking.”

Support for Trump’s Tariffs

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump unveiled his long-promised plan to place tariffs, which will affect more than 100 nations and trading partners.

Asked for his thoughts on the issue, Perry was generally supportive. Though he noted he had not had advanced notice of the details of the tariff plans and was still reviewing them. He also said that he would like to see exemptions for products like coffee and cocoa that generally can not be grown the U.S.

Since Trump promised to announce the sweeping tariffs on Wednesday, U.S. and foreign markets fell. Prices on a broad range of products are also expected to rise, and consumer confidence reached a four-year low.

Yet the hope for tariff supporters is that the move will bolster the consumption of American made products, and incite companies to move manufacturing into the U.S. – instead of importing products produced with cheaper labor elsewhere.

“I know there’s going to be some market adjustments, but I also know that prior to the national income tax, our country was basically funded by tariffs,” Perry said.

While tariffs were a primary source of income for the United States for decades, they were largely phased out following World War II, the introduction of income tax, and the increase of global trade.

Constituents express fears of cuts to social programs

Multiple people asked Perry about whether there will be cuts to benefit programs like Medicaid and Social Security.

All but one House Republican voted in February on a broad outline of a plan that would cut $2 trillion in federal spending. Perry was quick to point out that the fine points of how that spending will be cut haven’t been worked out.

“That’s what we call the top line, and these are the targets to get to,” Perry said.

Democrats have warned that the only way to make those cuts possible would be by eating into the funding of social programs. But, Perry noted that Senate Republicans were not likely to agree to such large cuts, and that they would ultimately have to compromise.

The congressman acknowledged that, in order to reduce the deficit, lawmakers will have to take a hard look at these programs. He expressed optimism that cuts could be made by eliminating alleged fraud.

“There’s fraud and abuse and that and improper payments,” Perry said about Social Security. “We’re finding out that people have abused these systems to the tune of hundreds of millions, and maybe billions and billions, of dollars. We can’t continue down that road. At a minimum, we should make sure that that stuff is stopped, so that the people that have paid in can get out what they’re expecting.”

A recent audit of the Social Security program found billions in improper payments between 2020 and 2023, but those makes up a small fraction — less than 1% — of all payments made by the multi-trillion dollar program. And not all of those overpayments were due to fraud.

Perry also said he’d be open to making fewer Americans eligible for Medicaid.

“Working adults have become the largest subgroup of Medicaid because of the way it’s been expanded,” Perry said. “The real problem … is that we can’t afford it, because we have just a huge amount of spending where we never had it before … It wasn’t what it was designed for.”

Medicaid was vastly expanded under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Since then, virtually all American citizens who haven’t aged into Medicare, and can’t obtain comparable insurance through an employer or spouse, can get on a federally-funded plan. Though what the government’s share of that cost is depends on a recipient’s income.

“The expanded population is 90% of [what the] federal government is paying, and so it’s actually diverting the resources away from the truly needy people,” Perry said. “We’ve got to take a look at it to make sure that the eligibility requirements are being met for the truly needy”

Another constituent asked about the impact of cuts to the Social Security Administration’s workforce, and whether it would make it more difficult to access services.

Perry said while people may be experiencing difficulty getting a golf of Social Security employees since workforce cuts to federal agencies, the issue isn’t new.

“I’m not for cutting the staff if the staff is necessary,” Perry said. “But we’ve dealt for a long time with Social Security in our office, because people could not get timely answers. And unfortunately for us, that’s not a new circumstance.”

“I don’t know if it’s becoming more acute,” Perry added.

Medicaid sign at U.S. Senate Democrats’ press conference on Feb. 19, 2025. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)

“Activist judges”

Perry was asked by a Trump-supporting constituent what he hoped to do about judges that have blocked some of the administration’s policies from taking effect. That includes his ban on birthright citizenship, his efforts to strip deportation protections from Venezuelans, and blocking federal funding for institutions that provide gender-affirming care for youth.

“We have these activist judges just right and left impeding him every step they go,” the caller said. “Why isn’t funding being pulled?”

Injunctions with nationwide effects ordered by federal judges have drawn the ire of numerous Republicans lawmakers. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), has warned that lawmakers may take action, including defunding or restructuring federal courts.

Perry, however, took a more measured approach.

“We do control the power of the purse, but I don’t know that there really is any way to single out individual judges,” Perry said. “We would be essentially forced to cut the entire portion of some judiciary and I don’t think that’s probably responsible when there’s one or two bad actors.”

Perry also said he does not believe impeachment is wise. He said it could “bog down” Congress, and would almost certainly fail in the Senate where a two-thirds vote is required.

But Perry was asked specifically about a resolution introduced by Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs, which contends that judges can be removed with a simple majority vote by taking advantage of a constitutional loophole.

The Constitution states that judges “shall hold their offices during good behavior,” and Biggs’ resolution argues that Judge James E. Boasberg, who attempted to block Trump from deporting hundreds of alleged gang members to El Salvador, has violated it. Though it would likely face legal challenges, the resolution is an effort to skirt the two-thirds vote requirement of impeachment.

Perry warned against the tact.

“There’s oftentimes activism on both sides,” Perry said. “When Republicans are in the Executive branch, then there might be activists on the Democrat side, and vice versa. So you’ve gotta understand that things cut both ways.”

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Tim Lambert for questions: info@penncapital-star.com.