Pennsylvania Democrats are celebrating now that the state legislature is no longer divided and laying out their agenda for when they take office in January.
The unofficial results of Tuesday’s election have Democrats taking control of the Pa. Senate for the first time in decades (26-24) while holding on to their strong majority in the state House (111-88), according to the Associated Press.
This is the first time the state has had unified control since 1993.
“Hundreds of our bills got stuck in a drawer over in the Senate Republican majority caucus room,” said Pa. House speaker Joanna McClinton. “Voters in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have decided that we should go in a different direction.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro, who fellow Democrats credited with pushing the party to victory, said Tuesday’s election results show he has “a mandate to continue to lead,” and said the party would act quickly to pass legislation he blamed Republicans for holding up.
Democratic leaders listed their priorities at a rally at the state Capitol Wednesday, then during a follow-up news conference at the governor’s residence down the road.
Rep. Jordan Harris (D-Philadelphia) said change is going to come for families that have been struggling.
“I’m excited about how much we’re going to keep funding our schools,” he said. “I’m excited about us protecting a woman’s right to make her own damn decisions.”
Speakers emphasized an urgent need to address the affordability crisis and strengthen public education.
Shapiro announced the party would release a first 100 days agenda soon, but in the meantime said, “Here’s what I can guarantee you what we’ll get done,” before listing funding mass transit, raising the minimum wage, building more housing, ensuring women have a right to abortion, and creating an opportunity for people who survived child sexual abuse to sue their abusers even after the statute of limitations expired.
Democratic Senate Leader Jay Costa said having the majority will make it easier to pass bills including the state budget.
“We now have a vehicle to be able to achieve those things, not for ourselves, not for our caucus, but for the people Pennsylvania,” he said.
Shapiro, who was elected with a “get stuff done” agenda in 2022, says the two-seat majority in the Senate will help him achieve even more. He said he wants to work with Republicans, but with the majority in both chambers, doesn’t need them. Still, Shapiro said the kinds of bills Democrats plan to pass will likely draw support from individual Republicans even if the party stands in opposition.
“It would not surprise me if the Republican caucus and the Senate splinters quite a bit on these bills that come up,” Shapiro said.
Read more from our partner, WITF.
