There was a wave election in Pennsylvania — for Democrats

As Republicans across the country saw their predictions of commanding victories up and down the ballot fall short on election night, Democrats in Pennsylvania

As Republicans across the country saw their predictions of commanding victories up and down the ballot fall short on election night, Democrats in Pennsylvania were celebrating signs of a blue wave.

Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro’s more than 14-point win helped boost Sen.-elect John Fetterman to a key victory, marking the first time since the 1940s that Pennsylvania will have two elected Democrats in the Senate. The tailwinds created such promising down-ballot conditions that Democrats won every competitive U.S. House race and appear to have ensured that they will take control of the state House for the first time in more than a decade. Shapiro himself will assume office with a mandate after he won with the largest margin of victory for any nonincumbent governor since 1946.

As the dust settles, Republicans are scrambling to unify various factions ahead of the next presidential election without a state-level leader to get behind — with some, including the party’s failed nominee for lieutenant governor, calling for a recalibration. Democrats, after having tightened their grip on a state that was core to Donald Trump’s 2016 coalition and was the largest swing state by electoral votes to flip to Joe Biden in 2020, are eyeing their resounding success last week as a road map for the future. 

'A woman's right to choose won': Pennsylvania Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro gives victory speechNov. 9, 202201:50Their strategy was twofold, those involved with the statewide effort said in interviews. First, a relentless, well-funded and early effort helped to define Shapiro’s opponent, far-right state Sen. Doug Mastriano, as the most extreme Republican in the country on abortion rights by using his own past comments against him. Shapiro himself, aiming to shave GOP margins in traditionally red counties, campaigned vigorously in places that had voted for Trump on a message of protecting individual freedoms, expanding economic opportunity for non-college graduates and hiring more police.

“Mastriano’s position on abortion was kind of the poster child for having the worst possible position you could have,” J.J. Abbott, a Pennsylvania-based Democratic strategist who worked on the efforts to define Mastriano, said in an interview, referring to remarks Mastriano made that included saying “my body, my choice” was “ridiculous nonsense” and that he saw no room for exceptions to an abortion ban. Those comments would blanket the airwaves in the run-up to last week’s midterms.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/was-wave-election-pennsylvania-democrats-rcna57558

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