Democrats strengthen grip on Delaware County

David Landau, former chair of the Delaware County Democratic Committee, recalled a time  when the GOP had an absolute lock on political power in the county and wielded it like a cudgel.

“It used to be when I grew up in Delaware County, your family had to register Republican or you were threatened,” Landau said. “You were threatened with not having your trash collected or your house would be reassessed and it was made very clear that Democrats weren’t welcome.”

Republicans ran “one of the most powerful and effective political machines in the country,”  Landau recalled. It took small wins in isolated pockets of the county, like Radnor and Chester, over the course of decades to slowly erode that machine.

“What we tried to do over a period of years was raise money, organize, bring in more committee people, and a lot of hard work, change registrations, and gradually things began to change,” Landau said.

Eventually, the Republicans lost their power. In 2017, Democrats Kevin Madden and Brian Zidek scored their first two seats on Delaware County Council.

“Prior to 2017, the Democratic Party in Delaware County was one that had never really won anything and therefore was lacking in resources, manpower, financial manpower, and maybe just as importantly as that, hope,” Madden said. “To think that we could now have at both at federal, state, and county level, 100% representation by Democrats, if you said that to someone in 2017, they’d think you were nuts.”

That narrative has flipped, Madden said. In 2019, three Democratic women — Monica Taylor, Elaine Paul SchaeferSchafer and Christine Reuther — handed the party control of council for the first time since the Civil War. Landau said it is “unprecedented” to have all Democrats representing Delaware County in Harrisburg.

Taylor said the sustained success at the polls has more to with promises kept than simply winning elections.

“We got into office and we governed and we worked through a pandemic, civil unrest, all of these items and then we still delivered what we said we were going to do in elections,” she said.

Frank Agovino, chair of the Delaware County Republican Party, said GOP officials were bracing for a difficult election night, but “not on this level.” He said it was a “perfect storm.”

Agovino said it is time to rebuild the party infrastructure.

“The pendulum will swing again, and I always say when that day happens and it will happen, we need to be ready to respond,” Agovino said. “You’re not going to be able to flip a light switch and have people in place. So, that all needs to be done and that’s what we’re working on.”

He said the focus is on 2027.

“The presidential election in ‘28 isn’t even part of the conversation at this point,” Agovino said.