In 2024, against the odds, we defended the one-seat majority in the Pennsylvania State House that we first helped fuel in 2022! In a year when every PA statewide election went to the rightwing, maintaining this majority should have been impossible. But with the help of our Giving Circles community, we defended every seat, including in some districts that went overwhelmingly for Trump.
In 2022, flipping the House came down to just 63 votes. In 2024 about 500 votes decided the closest race in this chamber — still narrow, but also reflecting the crucial work done to shore up these incumbent races in a tough national environment.
In the State Senate, we held crucial ground, helping us on the path to a potential trifecta in 2026.
We invested more than three times more than the next largest national coordinated funder to successfully defend every incumbent district and preserve the House majority and hold ground in the Senate.
We knew that in order to defend the House majority, candidates would have to overperform Vice President Harris in some deep red districts. Historically, state legislative candidates underperform the top of the ticket by about 5%. But in three districts, candidates overperformed Vice President Harris by double digits — including a district held by 2.6 percent that Trump won by more than 30 percent of the vote. About 3,000 voters across these three key seats made the difference in winning the majority.
In 2022, The States Project bet big in Pennsylvania — investing 80 times more than the next largest contributor to caucuses and candidates in the Pennsylvania House. All of the State House seats were up for election in 2022, and with fairer maps after redistricting, The States Project’s electoral work focused on ending rightwing control of the Pennsylvania legislature.
We worked with our in-state partners to support a full program in Pennsylvania, layering effective messages through tactics that reinforced each other as they met voters across a variety of platforms — candidate doorknocking, earned media, broadcast advertising including message testing. After every ballot was counted, we helped gain 12 new seats for a new majority in the Pennsylvania House for the first time since 2010.
In The States Project’s first cycle in Pennsylvania, we helped hold the ground gained by the minority since 2016, with +5 seats in the State Senate and +8 in the State House. We helped gain a new House district which had been held by Republicans ever since it was created in 1969. We also helped to gain a new seat in the Senate.
State lawmakers have the power to enact policies that can protect millions of Americans, and the overall direction of the country, from the worst impacts of a second Trump presidency.
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