DID WE MISS SDOMETHING?  APPARENTLY, YES – OVERNIGHT.  Where are the election-night reports from Pennsylvania, one of our most politically powerful states?  Salena Zito, one of the nation's best reporters, fills us in on some remarkable developments.  From the Washington Examiner: 

ERIE, Pennsylvania — Voters in the Keystone State, as in Virginia, took Tuesday's election as an opportunity to rebut Democrats' overreach. Driven by the loudest voices in their national party toward issues of social justice, "intersectionality" and "climate justice," Democrats suffered for ignoring everyday issues such as inflation, crime and education.

With mail-in ballots still pending, Republicans are poised to sweep all four of Pennsylvania's statewide judicial elections. They also made gains in municipal races.

In the collar counties surrounding Philadelphia, voters echoed the same dissatisfaction with Democrats that was displayed in the surprising results in neighboring New Jersey. This corrected some of the suburban losses that Republicans had experienced in Philly during the Trump years. In Bucks County, where Republicans have struggled to hold any local elected office in the last four years, they kept the district attorney's office in their column and picked up offices for sheriff and prothonotary. In Chester, where Republicans became extinct in row offices four years ago, the races were still too close to call.

Here in Erie, a critically important bellwether county for next year's high-profile races for state governorship and the U.S. House and Senate, voters chose the Republican candidate for county executive in a seat that has been held by Republicans only twice since 1978.

Down in southwestern Pennsylvania, which has been trending rightward since Democrats started shedding working-class voters in favor of an elite ascendant coalition around 2010, Republicans swept most row offices in the collar counties that surround Allegheny County and Pittsburgh.

Republicans were smart on candidate recruitment and localized rather than national messaging. In places where they had lost elections in recent cycles (Bucks County especially), Republicans dusted off some of their old-fashioned blocking and tackling moves and won races.

Pennsylvania has been inching toward the GOP since former Vice President Al Gore carried it by 4 points in 2000 — 3.5 points ahead of his national popular vote margin. For former President Barack Obama, Pennsylvania was only 1 point friendlier than his national margin in 2012. For Trump's victory in 2016, the commonwealth finished just under 3 points more Republican than the national result. In 2020, although President Joe Biden won, the margin in Pennsylvania was just over 3 points more Republican than Biden's national victory margin. That last result produced unexpected gains for Republicans in the state Legislature in a year where Democrats had hoped to take over both houses.
Former GOP state party Chairman Rob Gleason said Tuesday's results come as more good news for Republicans, not just ahead of next year's big races, but also thinking further ahead for 2024. "It is also good news for the conservative movement to continue to build the party from the most granular level up in local seats that have daily impact on their lives," said Gleason of the all-important party-building.

"Republicans made gains in races that a year or two ago they may have had no business running and won. That's big," Gleason added.

COMMENT:  Now Republicans will have to show that they are deserving of the trust they won last Tuesday.  They are in the best position they've ever been in, the beneficiaries of an increasingly unpopular and possibly dangerous Democratic Party.  Don't blow it, guys.  Build on Tuesday night.  Already Republican leaders are talking about a bill of rights for American parents.  That's exactly the way to go.  Address the American people and their needs, not the American left and its fantasies.

We are pleased with Pennsylvania.  It points us to the future.

November 9, 2021