The cost of groceries is up, Republicans control the White House and Congress and the Keystone State voted for President Donald Trump in 2024.
It’s a set of facts that might dishearten some, but not Eugene DePasquale, the lawyer, politician and triathlete who now chairs the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. To the contrary, he believes they’ve created favorable conditions for his party to bounce back — and maybe even chalk up a generational victory in the commonwealth.
More: Trump support drops as Pennsylvania voters worry about finances
“The same reason why Donald Trump got back into the White House is the same reason we can win back middle America. And that is, the cost of living,” said DePasquale, who stepped into his role as party chair in September 2025. “This is driving everything, why I think we lost in 2024 and why I think we’re poised for a big win.”
As always, Pennsylvania sits in the center of the scramble for partisan power in America and is home to four competitive congressional races that could decide whether Democrats claim a U.S. House majority after the November midterms. Meanwhile, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s rumored presidential ambitions are in the air even as the Democrat campaigns for a second term as the state’s top executive.
DePasquale, though, says he doesn’t see the state party as a laboratory for solutions to a national Democratic Party that has struggled to articulate a vision for post-Trump politics.
He has his eye closer to home. And right now, one of his top priorities is to help his party win a rare trifecta in Harrisburg, controlling the Governor’s Mansion, the state Senate and the House of Representatives for the first time in decades.
Sweeping these three arms of government would boost DePasquale’s strategy for a Democratic resurgence in the commonwealth. It would also offer his party the chance to take some big swings on what he sees as a winning issue: Making life more affordable for cost-burdened Pennsylvanians.
“I think for a chunk of time, (people) felt we as Democrats weren’t focused on that,” he said in an interview with USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania. “I believe we’ve learned our lesson. But I’m insistent, not only do we need to win these elections, but then we have to deliver.”
Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chair Eugene DePasquale speaks at an event in Dauphin County in July 2026. The event marked the launch of a coordinated campaign between Gov. Josh Shapiro and other Democrats on the ballot for the 2026 midterms.
Jim Heckman, who heads a caucus of Democratic officials from northwestern Pennsylvania, agrees that affordability is the right issue to prioritize but worries the party still doesn’t know how to talk about it.
“That’s really what we need right now, is just somebody who has a message that will reach a white, middle-class voter here in McKean County,” he said. “That’s what we didn’t have in ’24. We don’t really have that now.”
A new leadership style from DePasquale
Democrats lost Pennsylvania in every statewide race in 2024, from the presidency to state auditor general. DePasquale, 55, knows the sting of that firsthand after suffering defeat to Republican Dave Sunday in a bid for the attorney general’s office.
He entered his role as chairman in September 2025 on the heels of those setbacks and following years of slumping voter registration numbers for Democrats in the commonwealth. He’s said in interviews that the party’s finances were in trouble the month he arrived and that it “couldn’t even make payroll” at the time.
Since then, he’s introduced strategic changes that he hopes will allow the party to regain lost ground.
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He noticed that while his party was working to register voters regardless of political affiliation, Republicans have been dedicated to expanding their own ranks. He concluded that his party should do the same, and starting in October 2025, Democrats in the commonwealth outstripped Republicans in voter registration for 10 months straight.
The number of registered Democrats in the Keystone State grew by more than 35,200 from August 2025 to August 2026.
Christopher Nicholas, a veteran GOP consultant in the Keystone State, says this change is worth remarking but that the Democratic gain in Pennsylvania is “not even a rounding error,” representing just 0.4% of total voter registration.
“The fact that they’ve pushed back on the margins, it needs to be noted,” he said. “But it’s not the big story.”
The more important point, he asserts, is that Pennsylvania Democrats have a 208,000-voter edge over the GOP, when just a decade ago they were more than 916,000 voters ahead.
A 67-county Pennsylvania strategy
Local party chairs also praise DePasquale’s accessibility and attentiveness to counties outside the Democratic strongholds of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
Union County’s Democratic committee chair appreciates that he’s game to show up at local party events, helping draw crowds and boost donations. Michelle McFall, party chair in Westmoreland County, said DePasquale’s inclusive attitude can lift the spirits of people who feel like blue dots in a red sea.
“You feel beleaguered, you feel beaten down, you feel like you’re alone,” McFall said.
Josh Shapiro’s years in Pennsylvania public service
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Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks at a news conference about the killing of West York Police Officer Andrew Duarte during a hostage situation at UPMC Memorial Hospital in York County Feb. 22, 2025. (Harrison Jones)
Acknowledgement from the state party can help people connect to a broader mission and shift to a more optimistic mindset, she said.
“When people are feeling strong emotionally and psychologically, they can do more,” she said. “They can take those fights to the ballot box.”
Heckman hasn’t experienced a warm embrace from the party elite, and he feels especially snubbed by Shapiro, who he said hasn’t accepted recent invitations to Demstock, an annual gathering of western Pennsylvania Democrats. Shapiro has made other political appearances in the region, including a May stop in Erie.
And while Heckman feels there should be a healthy separation between the party and the governor, the boundaries have now all but dissolved, he argues. He respects DePasquale, but he notes the party chair had Shapiro’s backing and that its new executive director is also a longtime ally of the governor.
“We have 17 congressional districts. We have 201 state House districts. We have 50 senatorial districts,” he said. “As cool as Shapiro is and as much of a powerhouse as Shapiro is, these other people matter.”
Eugene DePasquale said he has prioritized voter registration since being elected chair of the Democratic Party of Pennsylvania in September 2025. Democrats had outgained Republicans in party registrations for 10 straight months through July 2026.
A ‘big tent’ party in Pa.
McFall said she phoned DePasquale several months ago to ask for advice. A lifelong Republican had just joined the Democratic Party and wanted to run under the new banner for an elected office in Westmoreland County. McFall felt slightly uneasy, though she couldn’t put her finger on exactly why.
But DePasquale said McFall was dealing with a success story, not a sticky situation. The Pennsylvania Democrats need to embrace people like these, disaffected Republicans who are ready for change and willing to lead the way, the party chair advised.
“That was an example of big tent,” she said. “That doesn’t just mean … lean left, lean center, lean right. That means, open to people coming into the party with wholly different experiences.”
DePasquale emphasizes the importance of an expansive party, broad enough to encompass a passionate newcomer from the GOP and a politician like U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, whose commitment to the Democratic brand has come under question.
That unified front, he hopes, will act as a force multiplier for the party as it pursues its ambitious strategy for the midterms. This fall, the party hopes to oust GOP incumbents in four congressional races, reinstall Shapiro in the Governor’s Mansion and flip enough state legislative seats to claim control of the Pennsylvania Senate.
More: John Fetterman says he won’t abandon Democratic party
In preparation, state Democrats have launched a “coordinated campaign” led by Shapiro, who has pumped more than $3.3 million into the party’s coffers to help with the effort. The party has dispatched field organizers to all parts of the commonwealth to propel their federal, state and local candidates to victory.
DePasquale says the message must center on affordability, an issue that he acknowledges the party didn’t get right in the 2024 election.
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump works behind the counter making french fries during a campaign event at McDonald’s restaurant on October 20, 2024 in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania. Trump is campaigning the entire day in the state of Pennsylvania. Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris continue to campaign in battleground swing states ahead of the November 5th election.
“Donald Trump was serving hamburgers at McDonalds, while Kamala Harris was in Bucks County … talking about protecting democracy,” DePasquale said. “Now, is protecting democracy important? I certainly believe it is. But for a lot of people, this democracy’s not working for them.”
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Most acutely, he said, people are struggling with healthcare access and costs, predicting this would be the election’s “sleeper issue.”
Trump’s marquee tax legislation from 2025 will carve an estimated $911 billion from the nation’s Medicaid program in the next decade, and advocates have warned these cutbacks could weaken hospitals and health systems, particularly in rural and low-income communities. Meanwhile, congressional Republicans have refused to renew federal tax subsidies that had made Affordable Care Act coverage less costly for millions of Americans.
But Nicholas says the Democrats’ attempted pivot to affordability has been overshadowed by a series of high-profile primary battles between establishment politicians and progressive candidates. One of these contests played out in Philadelphia, where democratic socialist Chris Rabb prevailed in a crowded congressional primary.
“That conversation has kind of dominated the summer,” Nicholas said. “It has definitely been a fumble by the Democrats and lifeline to the Republicans.”
If the Dems win a trifecta in Pa., what’s next?
Democrats currently occupy the Governor’s Mansion and hold a one-vote majority in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, while the GOP has a slim advantage in the state Senate.
Winning control of all three for a trifecta would enable Pennsylvania Democrats to push forward their vision for prosperity, DePasquale said, breaking the partisan gridlock that has mired many pieces of their agenda for years. It’s a chance to prove to Pennsylvanians that Democratic policies can make a difference in voters’ day-to-day experience, he contends.
DePasquale argues Trump’s military action in Iran and his move to slash health care and food assistance programs for low-income people have shown that GOP leadership is making life harder for Americans.
But it’s not enough just to criticize, he contends. Democrats also have to offer a positive alternative to voters who are leery of all politicians, regardless of party label.
DePasquale has a ready answer for the skeptics: In recent decades, he notes, Democrats have only held both the General Assembly and Governor’s Mansion on one occasion, for a short window in the early 1990s. As soon as they took charge, though, he points out they passed a program guaranteeing health insurance to children in the commonwealth.
He anticipates that if Democrats clinch a trifecta in the midterms, they’ll usher in similarly far-reaching changes by increasing the commonwealth’s minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009.
Shapiro has vowed to enshrine abortion protections in Pennsylvania law, push affordable housing initiatives and contain utility costs, while DePasquale says a Democratic majority could also make childcare more affordable, offer student debt relief and rein in the cost of college education.
“So we’re not all the same,” he said of politicians. “I get why people say that, but we’re not.”
Bethany Rodgers is a USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania investigative journalist focusing on health and education.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Pennsylvania Democrats’ plan to win back swing voters | Exclusive