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Doylestown, Pennsylvania – The crowd waiting in line for a Bucks County Board of Elections meeting earlier this week was angry. The only thing missing was the pitchfork.
The uproar began the week before, when one of the committee members, Diane Ellis Marseglia, claimed that the state Supreme Court’s ruling didn’t actually matter and that illegal votes were cast in the Keystone State Senate race anyway. He announced that he was planning to collect data.
David Marcus: Vote for Pennsylvania State Senate. Casey: “It’s over, Bob.”
On Wednesday, she issued a sort of apology to a foaming crowd demanding her resignation, but on Thursday, Democratic Sen. Bob Casey conceded defeat to challenger Dave McCormick. By all appearances, the controversy is over, but why did it arise in the first place?
“This is all about 2026,” Nick told me outside the government office.
Nick, in his late 20s or early 30s, is one of those Gen Z conservative men you often hear about, with his hair slicked back and sunglasses. “Casey is not going to be a senator, but they want this ballot to be counted next time,” he said.
A crowd gathers ahead of a Bucks County Board of Elections meeting in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. (David Marcus/Fox News Digital)
All of this has some Democrats wondering if Pennsylvania, long the most volatile of the battleground states, could slip firmly into the Republican column, much like Ohio and Florida before it. It speaks to the understandable concerns.
The race between McCormick and Casey was reportedly close enough to merit a recount, but the race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris does not. It was not a close race, but just like the national tally, Trump’s victory was decided with a lead of about 2 points.
Even in Philadelphia, the bluest part of the commonwealth, Trump won more votes than he did in 2020, but he lagged behind Harris and Democrats in turnout. It’s a loud warning alarm for what was once a party for Jefferson and Jackson.
Swing states do not tend to remain in swing states forever. Oregon, for example, is now so far left that Mao Zedong would say, “tone it down a little,” but 30 years ago it was in turmoil, but times and political parties change.

Senator Bob Casey and Senator-elect Dave McCormick (AP/Reuters)
For now, Pennsylvania still has one Democratic senator, John Fetterman. While John Fetterman sometimes appears to be charting his own centrist line against headwinds from the national political left, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro also seems wary of crass progressivism.
But if Democrats don’t understand nationally what Fetterman and Shapiro are seeing: that unchecked wokeness and far-left policies are being thoroughly and soundly rejected by voters, even Democrats won’t be able to take Pennsylvania. You can’t keep it purple.
“If there were no double standards, Democrats would have no standards at all,” a man holding a Trump sign shouted outside the election board on Wednesday, but his argument was easily accepted.
For four years, we heard little more about President Trump than election denialism, and were told that he posed a grave and dire threat to the country. But here was an elected Democrat who promised to break the law and count illegal votes just to put his own representative in power.
Pennsylvania Democrats now face a dangerous crossroads. It’s possible that Fetterman and Shapiro will at least continue to signal a centrist approach, but that may matter less if the National Party continues to lean far to the left.
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If Democrats again nominate a far-left San Francisco liberal like Gavin Newsom in four years, there is every reason to believe that Pennsylvanians will continue their march to the right.
They were always Joe Biden and Ed Rendell’s Democrats, never Nancy Pelosi’s Democrats.
For Republicans, the lesson from Pennsylvania could not be simpler. Just stay the course and embody what President-elect Trump rightly calls common sense.
If Republicans can securely red flag Pennsylvania, it would be a major shift in national politics, one that fundamentally changes what our party stands for and stands for.
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That’s why Casey hunkered down at the impossible windmill of a recount. It’s not about him, it’s not about now, it’s not about next time. It’s about preserving the delicate margins of vote-counting that often push Democrats over the finish line.
But this time the people are aware, this time they are protesting, and next time they may be ready to hand the keys to generational power to the Republicans.
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