Was it judges, a testament to local leadership or a referendum on Trump?<\/p>\n
Delaware County GOP Chair<\/a> Frank Agovino said he witnessed the voter surge with his own eyes.\n<\/p>\n \u201cYou just saw the traffic,\u201d Agovino said. \u201cIt was very, very high and folks working the polls were commenting, especially people that have been around for a long time, that they hadn\u2019t seen anything like this in quite some time.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Republicans used to have a tight grip on the county\u2019s elected office. But, ever since Democrats took control of Delaware County Council<\/a> in 2019 for the first time since the Civil War, the GOP has been shut out.\n<\/p>\n And with Democrats holding a 60,000-voter advantage in registration totals, Tuesday proved to be no different. Democrats maintained sole control of County Council<\/a> \u2014 and picked up several local offices as well.\n <\/p>\n Agovino believes the GOP put forward a better local slate focused on addressing rising taxes and quelling unnecessary spending<\/a>, but he said Democratic voters were motivated by more than just local politics.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe statewide retention issue I don\u2019t think really worked out for Republicans,\u201d Agovino said. \u201cI think a lot of it actually ginned up the Democrat base. I think it put abortion back on the ballot. I think they came out because of that. There\u2019s always the repudiation [from a majority of Democrats] of Donald Trump. I think that had something to do with it for sure.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Salvatore Colleluori, the countywide campaign manager for Democrats in Delaware County, has a slightly different perspective.\n<\/p>\n He was \u201cvery pleasantly surprised\u201d to see the high turnout. Colleluori acknowledged that the state Supreme Court race drove attention to the polls, but he believes the local Democratic candidates inspired voters to support their vision of the county.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe flipped multiple municipalities and picked up seats in what used to be reliably Republican areas,\u201d Colleluori said.\n<\/p>\n In recent years, Democrats established a county health department<\/a> and deprivatized George W. Hill Correctional Facility<\/a>. Colleluori said those actions gave the campaigns something to rally behind.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe ran an entirely positive campaign highlighting the achievements of what Delaware County has done since it became under Democratic rule,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think that was something that voters bought into.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Makhija, a Democrat, said Tuesday\u2019s surge was a testament of steady local leadership \u2014 and a referendum on the Trump administration.\n<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very clear that Donald Trump won because of high inflation and voters at the time wanted to punish the party in power because they didn\u2019t feel like enough was being done quickly enough,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd yet everything that the Trump-Vance administration has done, has not been helpful for ordinary people and, in fact, has made inflation worse.\u201d\n<\/p>\n