HARRISBURG (TNS) — There is a political shift taking place among Pennsylvania voters, and it’s following a nationwide trend.
An Associated Press article analyzing voter registration data showed that more than 1 million voters in 43 states switched their voter registration to Republican within the past year, compared with around 630,000 who switched to register as Democrats.
In Pennsylvania in 2022, more than 35,000 people officially switched their political allegiance from Democrat to Republican as of July 11. This is more than three times the number of people who switched their voter registration from Republican to Democrat.
AP utilized data from L2, which used a combination of state voter registration data and statistical modeling to come up with its results. PennLive utilized only statistics from the Pennsylvana Department of State for this article.
The Associated Press article highlighted the counties surrounding Harrisburg as one of the places where Republicans were gaining ground. For example, in York County, more than 1,000 people filed to switch from Democrat to Republican this year.
In McKean County, 88 Democrats switched to the GOP, while 57 people with other party affiliations also switched to the Republicans. According to the data, 19 Republicans switched to the Democrats, while 16 people affiliated with other parties besides the GOP also registered as Democrats.
In Elk County, 164 Democrats and 39 other party members went Republican (9 and 13, respectively, switched to the Democrats); in Potter County, 51 Democrats and 29 other party members went Republican (6 and 3, respectively, went to the Democrats); in Cameron County, 54 Democrats and 50 other party members went Republican (14 and 31, respectively, went to the Democrats; and in Warren County, 170 Democrats and 80 other party members went to the GOP (29 and 21, respectively, switched to the Democrats.
Political analyst G. Terry Madonna told WITF’s Smart Talk that party switching was a trend that began in summer 2021 as the delta variant of COVID-19 was on the rise.
“Midterm elections … is largely a reflection of what the voters think of the incumbent president, and that’s what’s going on right now,” Madonna said.
Madonna’s observation matched the AP analysis, which cited growing frustrations with the Joe Biden administration with everything from pandemic-related school closures to the baby formula shortage as reasons for people switching their party allegiance.
However, it cautioned, switching party registration doesn’t necessarily mean that it will turn into votes in November.
Historically, more people have leaped from Democrat to Republican in the state than vice versa. Pennsylvania Department of State data showed that more than 536,000 switched from Democrat to Republican between 2008 and 2021 while 326,940 switched from Republican to Democrat.
