The Pennsylvania Republican Party recently launched a statewide voter registration competition hoping to erase a diminishing Democratic registration advantage that’s eroded considerably over roughly the past decade.
Registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans statewide by more than 916,000 when GOP President Donald Trump first won Pennsylvania and the White House in 2016. That advantage stood at just 178,215 as of Monday, when the state last updated voter registration statistics, and is down from 216,892 as of Dec. 23.
GOP gains in local counties have helped close the registration gap statewide, with Democrats maintaining a registration advantage in just two northeast counties, Lackawanna and Monroe. Lackawanna County remains the region’s lone Democratic stronghold, with Democrats outnumbering Republicans there 76,406 to 51,700, but that advantage has shrunk significantly in recent election cycles. Newspaper records show Democrats outnumbered their GOP counterparts in Lackawanna by nearly 41,000 voters during the 2020 presidential primary, down from an advantage of about 60,000 as recently as May 2009.
In Luzerne County, where Republicans gained the voter registration advantage over Democrats in September for the first time since the 1970s, the GOP momentum hasn’t abated. Now reliably red, Luzerne County Republicans outnumbered Democrats there 90,426 to 84,200 as of Monday. That amounts to a GOP advantage of 6,226, up from 5,304 in late January.
In pursuit of flipping the statewide registration advantage in their favor, Republicans also hope to widen leads in counties where they already maintain a significant advantage. That’s the case in much of the region, including Schuylkill and Wyoming counties, where Republicans outnumber Democrats more than 2-to-1. Schuylkill County has 52,745 registered Republicans and 25,508 Democrats; Wyoming County has 11,334 Republicans and 4,667 Democrats.
The state Republican Party’s registration competition opened Monday and runs through Oct. 20, tasking local party officials in all 67 Pennsylvania counties to grow their numbers ahead of the November election.
“This is a mission to reshape the electoral map in Pennsylvania,” PA GOP spokesman James Markley said in a press release announcing the competition. “Our message is resonating, our base is energized, and this effort will ensure we have the numbers to back it up in November.”
The release notes each county was assigned a unique registration goal based on local data and current trends, with progress tracked and shared every two weeks. Markley said he was not able to share the registration goals assigned to northeast counties when contacted this week.
“Our goal here is to continue the momentum brought by President Trump and Republicans all around Pennsylvania over the last few years and finally make Pennsylvania a majority Republican state,” he said in an email. “If the PA GOP and Republicans around Pennsylvania push hard to flip voters red in 2025, it will make it that much easier to elect a Republican Governor and bring home other big Republican wins in 2026.”
Pennsylvania voters haven’t elected a Republican governor since 2010, when then-state Attorney General Tom Corbett defeated Democratic Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato to win the governor’s mansion. Corbett served one term before losing a 2014 reelection bid to Democrat Tom Wolf, whom voters reelected governor in 2018. Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro then comfortably won the position in 2022, defeating Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano.
Locally, Shapiro defeated Mastriano in Lackawanna, Luzerne and Monroe counties en route to his statewide win.
The 2026 cycle also includes the congressional midterm elections, when all 435 seats in the House of Representatives are on the ballot. Neither of Pennsylvania’s two U.S. Senate seats, held by Democratic Sen. John Fetterman and Republican Sen. Dave McCormick, are on the ballot next year.
State figures show registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 14,600 in the 8th Congressional District, which is represented by GOP U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan and includes all of Lackawanna, Wayne and Pike counties and parts of Luzerne and Monroe counties.
Republicans have a substantial registration advantage in the sprawling 9th Congressional District, which includes all of Bradford, Columbia, Lebanon, Montour, Northumberland, Schuylkill, Sullivan, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties and parts of Berks, Luzerne and Lycoming counties. Republicans outnumber Democrats in the district by nearly 156,600 registered voters.
The 9th District is represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, who is considering a 2026 run for governor. Trump recently said he’d support Meuser if he decides to run.