Dems Sweep Montco State Legislature Races While Harris Falters

NORRISTOWN, PA — Democratic incumbent candidates swept state legislature races in Montgomery County districts, winning by margins that were as large or even larger than recent elections in 2022 and 2020.

The wins are more remarkable for the fact that they came in seats that were historically Republican for decades until 2018, and even in a "red wave" election like 2024, the GOP did not make notable gains.

But the contrast is even more glaring because of how the candidate at the top of the ticket performed.

In Montgomery County, the Kamala Harris and Tim Walz ticket lost more than 11,300 votes from what the Joe Biden and Harris ticket won here in 2020. President-elect Donald Trump, meanwhile, won about 8,000 more votes in Montgomery County than he did in 2020.

Related: Trump Wins 8,000 More Votes In Montgomery Co. Than He Did In 2020

Generally, when the top of the ticket suffers, it's reflected down the ballot. Not so this year, in what can either be seen as a strong rejection of Harris and a primary-less Democratic Party that shoehorned in a candidate, or a wave of bipartisan, cross-ticket support for Trump. Or both.

Here's a glance at selected state legislature races in Montgomery and Chester counties Tuesday. All of the below races were won by incumbent Democrats by large margins in districts that were Republican for nearly all of their history leading up to the blue wave flip in 2018.

• Joe Ciresi Defeats Michael McCloskey In 146th District
• Liz Hanbidge Defeats Michelle Rupp In 61st District
• Joe Webster Defeats Simone Collins In 150th
• Steve Malagari Defeats Cheryl Bonativa In 53rd
• Paul Friel Defeats Shawn Blickley In PA's 26th Legislative District

Local Democrats did well in spite of lower voter turnout in Montgomery County in 2024. While there were technically more voters who cast ballots than in 2020, the percentage of registered voters who cast ballots was just 81.8 percent, compared to 84.2 in 2020. It's another factor that likely influenced Harris's poorer relative performance.

This same trend was evident in the race for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, where the gap between Bob Casey and Dave McCormick is about a quarter of what separates Harris from Trump.