In major upset, Democrats flip a Lancaster County state Senate seat that Trump won by 15 points

For the first time in months, Pennsylvania Democrats have reason to celebrate.

Democrats claimed victory in a Lancaster County state Senate district where President Donald Trump won by 15 percentage points in November and where no Democrat has won since the south central district was created in the 1980s.

The Associated Press called the race Wednesday afternoon for Democratic candidate James Malone, who won by just under 500 votes.

National Democrats touted the win as a hopeful sign that anti-Trump resistance can win even in traditionally conservative areas, though Republicans suggested the outcome was also the result of a weak candidate and ongoing struggles motivating GOP voters to turn out in off-year elections.

The 36th Senate District was formerly represented by State Sen. Ryan Aument (R., Lancaster). Aument resigned from his seat in December, after accepting a job to be U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick’s state director.

Malone, the mayor of the small borough of East Petersburg outside Lancaster city, defeated GOP County Commissioner Josh Parsons, a staunch Trump supporter who is known in the county GOP for his skilled political maneuvering.

“A lot of people they did not like the chaos and they didn’t like the fact that our leadership in Harrisburg has been silent,” Malone, 51, said Wednesday. “They really didn’t like the fact that no one was listening. That’s all I had to do was be an open ear.”

Parsons could not be reached for comment Wednesday. In a post on X, he conceded, writing that he called Malone “to congratulate him and wish him the best.”

”Again, I truly appreciate those who supported us, contributed, or worked hard in our state senate run,” Parsons wrote.

Democrats saw an opening in the district, as mail vote totals seemed to give Malone more of an advantage than usual. U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D., Pa.) came to Lancaster over the weekend to canvass for him, and Gov. Josh Shapiro made a robocall to voters in the district today, a spokesperson said.

“Tonight in Lancaster County, Pennsylvanians rejected a candidate who embraced the extremism and division coming out of DC,” said Shapiro in a statement. He won the same Senate district in his 2022 gubernatorial bid by two-tenths of a percentage point. “In a district carried comfortably by Donald Trump just a few months ago, they chose a better way forward — an embrace of competence, commonsense, and a desire to bring people together.”

But not so fast, Democrats, said Terry Christopher, a local committee chairman in the Republican Committee of Lancaster County. The results were more of a reflection on Parsons, who is “the most divisive person in our party” and disliked among Democrats, than of Trump.

”We’ll defeat [Malone] in a year and a half,” Christopher said, noting the strong GOP voter registration advantage in the district. “We had a historically bad candidate.”

Christopher, who has been a critic of Parsons since 2015, when Parsons disapproved of Christopher’s support of Trump, said Tuesday’s results were the worst performance of any politician in county history.

“We have so much momentum because of President Trump right now that Josh Parsons is the only man … that could have actually stopped that momentum and reversed it,” Christopher added.

Malone acknowledged that he thinks he benefited from some anti-Parsons sentiment in the district, but also said he ran a campaign that pulled in independents and Republicans by talking about local issues, like support for first responders, libraries, and addressing property taxes.

“A lot of the people who thought it was impossible were underestimating Lancaster. It’s not a matter of what party you’re in, it’s what are you wanting to do? Are you willing to listen? That kind of thing ... We can definitely win if we’re honest decent people.”

Stella Sexton, who was the co-campaign manager for Malone, said she was able to make the argument to other Democrats that the district was winnable by pointing to Shapiro’s success there in 2022 against State Sen. Doug Mastriano.

“There are Republicans in this district who will vote for the right Democrat when there’s an incredibly unpopular Trump sycophant,” Sexton said.

Democrats nationally celebrated Malone’s success, saying the win indicated that the party could motivate its base in local elections.

”This is how it’s done,” U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted on X Tuesday. “Focus on local elections ASAP — from school board to councils to state legislatures.”

Ahead of Tuesday’s election, the state Senate race garnered the interest of conservative activist and mail voting advocate Scott Presler, and even the attention of Trump billionaire adviser Elon Musk.

Presler posted on X late Tuesday that he had warned Republicans that Democrats could flip the seat. ”I asked for help in Pennsylvania & no one helped us,” he added.

Sexton said she believed Musk’s interest in the race helped them turn out more Democrats and independent voters, as well as Malone’s fundraising ability that kept pace with Parsons’ campaign spending.

Parsons’ political personality has been built, in part, by his focus on culture war issues. He led early efforts to reopen the county early in the COVID-19 pandemic, he objected to a drag queen story hour last year at the local library that was later shut down due to bomb threats, and he was featured in a Washington Post story for his attacks on the local newspaper.

But he wielded control in the local Republican Party and successfully helped his wife, Christina Parsons, get elected to the county Court of Common Pleas in 2023, despite not getting the Lancaster County Bar Association’s recommendation. Parsons also had a public argument late last year with Amber Martin, the county’s GOP treasurer and wife of Lancaster’s State Sen. Scott Martin, in which she described his behavior as “despicable,” LancasterOnline reported.

As Malone takes over a politically divided district, he said he’s not thinking about an ideological approach — progressive or moderate, but how to get results for constituents who will vote on whether he continues to represent them in 2026.

“There’s gonna be another tough race, and we’ve got 18 months to prove that we can actually serve our district,” he said.

Pennsylvania Democrats were also celebrating Tuesday after winning a special election outside Pittsburgh to reclaim House Democrats’ one-seat majority to again lead the chamber after a Democratic member died in January.

Democrat Dan Goughnour, a McKeesport police officer and school board member, won Tuesday’s special election to fill a vacancy in the 35th Legislative District created by the late Rep. Matt Gergely’s death earlier this year. Gergely, 45, died in January following a health emergency.