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Republicans Just Lost a Statewide Election in Pennsylvania. What Does That Mean for the Future?
Slate ^ | Nov 4, 2025 | Molly Olmstead

Posted on 11/05/2025 7:12:58 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege

Pennsylvania voters have rejected a Republican effort to remove three Democrats from the state Supreme Court.

The stakes of Tuesday’s election were high: Had Pennsylvanians voted to remove the justices, the court would have gone from a seven-member Democratic majority to a four-member group with a complete ideological split. The three justices’ vacant seats would not have been filled until another election at the end of 2027.

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court regularly holds these kinds of votes for its justices. The justices are first selected in partisan elections, but at the end of their 10-year terms, voters then decide whether to extend them for another 10 in nonpartisan elections. Once in, justices rarely get voted out, but Republicans campaigned hard this year in the hopes of changing the balance of power on the state’s court.

But if the justices are booted, the seats become open again, and voters once again decide who will be placed on the court during the next election. The court currently has seven justices, two of whom are Republicans. So if the three justices on Tuesday’s ballot had been ousted, and if Republicans had then successfully replaced them with their own judges during the next election, then went on to lose those three seats, the GOP would have flipped the court.

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Pennsylvania; State and Local
KEYWORDS: 2026; 2028; concern; concerntroll; concerntrolling; courts; midterms; pa; pennsylvania; shapiro; slatereally; swingstate
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1 posted on 11/05/2025 7:12:58 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Doom...


2 posted on 11/05/2025 7:14:51 PM PST by dpetty121263
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To: dpetty121263

Oh, stop. Shapiro is going down in 2026. He has abandoned the State for his Govenortotlral ambitions.


3 posted on 11/05/2025 7:19:11 PM PST by cowboyusa ( YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA AND HE WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM!)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Republicans have been out here acting like they won forever. it doesn’t seem like that at all to me. I’m not saying all doom but they better start working because the deck is stacked against them.


4 posted on 11/05/2025 7:20:13 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway
but they better start working because the deck is stacked against them.

We fought like h*** in 2024 and due to Trump's charisma, we were able to pull it off.

We need to have the same urgency for '26 and '28.

5 posted on 11/05/2025 7:21:49 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

I bet the turnout was single-digits.


6 posted on 11/05/2025 7:22:25 PM PST by crusty old prospector
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To: nickcarraway

Garrity is a great Canidate , not like that baboon Masteeano. Taxes and aforitablity will be huge issues next year.


7 posted on 11/05/2025 7:22:39 PM PST by cowboyusa ( YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA AND HE WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM!)
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To: cowboyusa

He has 2 things that will prevent that, he is Jewish, and he is not radical enough...


8 posted on 11/05/2025 7:23:38 PM PST by dpetty121263
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

The Democrat party in the US will go down in history as the biggest criminal organization in the world.


9 posted on 11/05/2025 7:27:31 PM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer” )
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

When Trump (or an equivalent) is not on the ballot, many Republicans are simply just motivated enough to go out and vote. There’s no fire in the belly.

And with judges? There’s even less motivation.

Don’t get me wrong. This Pennsylvania judicial election was important, very important! But too many Republicans didn’t see it that way.

Tragic, really.


10 posted on 11/05/2025 7:29:49 PM PST by Leaning Right (It's morning in America. Again.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Sorry. First line in my #10 should read:

When Trump (or an equivalent) is not on the ballot, many Republicans are simply NOT motivated enough to go out and vote.


11 posted on 11/05/2025 7:31:42 PM PST by Leaning Right (It's morning in America. Again.)
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To: dpetty121263

Oh, but he has moved left. He ran as a moderate problem solver. ThecState has no budget and taxes are going up.


12 posted on 11/05/2025 7:32:47 PM PST by cowboyusa ( YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA AND HE WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM!)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

It was an off-year election. Turnout was key, and the AWFULs turned out.


13 posted on 11/05/2025 7:35:30 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (I have no answers. Only questions.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Most voters couldn’t name the judges and wouldn’t be able to say why they should be tossed out.


14 posted on 11/05/2025 7:36:31 PM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Slate. Uh huh.

Was it one of those Keep Them Or Not ballots?

In that case, Keep wins big everywhere.

People don’t get worked up over judges that are appointed.

Was it an actual race with 2 candidates?


15 posted on 11/05/2025 7:38:51 PM PST by Fledermaus ("It turns out all we really needed was a new President!")
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To: dpetty121263

Doom is right. But I don’t blame the republicans. So many of our citizens have gone dark after years of brain washing.


16 posted on 11/05/2025 7:42:30 PM PST by Revel
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

More democrat cheating.


17 posted on 11/05/2025 7:49:53 PM PST by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> --- )
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

This is always how elections like this go.

Republicans won big in 2024. Most of those people went to sleep believing their work was done.

Democrats are bitter because they lost in 2024, so they they have challenger energy.

Democrats turned out. Republicans stayed home asleep.

That’s basically what happens all the time in these inter presidential election periods.

Republicans had basically no game, and honestly people are mad that very little seems to be happening from them.


18 posted on 11/05/2025 7:50:26 PM PST by Bayard
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To: smokingfrog

Mail-in + absentee ballots

1,298,412 ballots requested
1,152,000 ballots returned & counted (88 % return rate)

That’s 40 % of every vote cast in the entire election.
Democrats used mail 3-to-1 over Republicans (same split as 2024).


19 posted on 11/05/2025 7:53:48 PM PST by C210N (1)
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To: Brian Griffin

> Most voters couldn’t name the judges and wouldn’t be able to say why they should be tossed out.<

Right. The Founders envisioned a country where you could personally meet with the various candidates, and listen to what they had to say. And maybe even ask a few questions.

Now each candidate represents hundreds of thousands of people. These candidates often gets lost in the crowd.

I really don’t know how you could fix that.


20 posted on 11/05/2025 8:05:58 PM PST by Leaning Right (It's morning in America. Again.)
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