The Opportunity

In 2022, The States Project was by far the largest funder — 80 times the next largest supporter to candidates and caucuses — in the successful effort to shift the balance of power in the Pennsylvania House for the first time in 12 years. After flipping 12 districts, the new House majority was able to gain governing power by just one seat, which was decided by just 32 voters.

The new majority immediately made history by electing House Speaker Joanna McClinton to become the first woman to serve as Speaker in the House’s more than 300-year history.

In February 2023, the new House majority was in jeopardy with three vacancies in majority-held seats. The States Project helped to hold these seats, successfully defending the balance of power in three special elections. In May, this community rallied once again to help successfully win yet another special election, protecting the new House majority once again.

While the House has been able to advance critical policies in the legislature, because the rightwing controls the Senate, these policies were not enacted in the 2023 session.

In 2024 The States Project sees the opportunity to protect the current House majority, and work towards shifting the balance of power in the Senate by 2026. With just half the Senate seats up for election this year, our goal in the Senate is to flip three seats to achieve a tie in 2024, in order to win a majority in 2026. New power in the Senate would ensure that all Pennsylvanians could benefit from policies that defend democracy, protect their personal freedoms, and improve lives.

 

The Stakes

Even with a divided legislature, Speaker McClinton and the House majority worked to deliver impactful results, including these policies which were signed into law in 2023:

• Free school breakfast for all 1.7 million public school students in the state.
• Expanded apprenticeships so Pennsylvanians can earn-while-they-learn and secure a good job.
• No-cost breast cancer screenings for women at high risk of developing the disease. More than 13,000 Pennsylvania women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year; over 2,000 pass away.
• New, statewide requirements to protect the health of moms, including a requirement to publish maternal mortality data in order to learn more about the causes and protect women’s health. In Pennsylvania, 1 in 4 counties — nearly 200,000 women — do not have full access to maternity care.

Pennsylvania House lawmakers have also passed these policies but have not been able to get them through the rightwing Senate majority.

• An increase in the state’s minimum wage to help address the high cost of living.
• Twenty-two years after its first introduction in the House, the new majority has been able to advance nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians in employment, housing, and other public services.
• A majority of Pennsylvanians want common sense gun violence prevention, and after a years-long standstill, two gun safety policies have been passed by the Pennsylvania House — expanded background checks and temporary removal of firearms from those who are a danger to themselves and others.

Ultimately, the rightwing-controlled Senate blocked these policies — and more — from becoming law. If we are able to flip three additional seats with new governing power in the chamber unlocked, policies like these would have a better chance of being enacted.

The Landscape

Our work to flip the Pennsylvania House started in 2021 — before a single line on new maps was drawn — with a Giving Circles-fueled deep canvassing of the areas most likely to become potential tipping point seats

Even with this early start and sustained effort and investment in building a House majority, two races were decided by fewer than 100 votes — three others by fewer than 1,000.

In preparation for a high-stakes state legislative election in 2024, we’ve already started our work in both chambers to fuel majorities that will prioritize meeting the needs of the people they are elected to serve.

Holding the House and tying the Senate would create the potential for a new trifecta in 2026.

Special Election

In May of 2023, there was a special election for HD-163, which would determine if Pennsylvania would continue to have a House majority committed to safeguarding democracy, protecting personal freedoms, and improving lives. Because we knew that losing this one seat would shift power in the chamber back to the rightwing, we invested to protect this seat. We’re proud to say we helped power a victory that secured the Pennsylvania House 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 helped to flip the Pennsylvania House, netting the 12 seats we needed for a new House majority for the first time since 2010.

• 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.
  • Three House candidates won their tossup seats, outperforming both President Biden’s 2020 results, and two outperforming Senator John Fetterman. They were all also top performers in The States Project’s Door Knocking Challenge!
• Our investment —and the momentum we had built in the state since 2020 — paid off with new governing power in the House.

• 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.