Turning Pennsylvania

On election night, Pennsylvania shocked the country by voting for a Republican presidential candidate for the first time in 28 years. Just days before, Pennsylvania had been written off by experts who assumed the state’s streak of voting Democratic would continue. But in addition to proving them wrong, Pennsylvanians also elected 13 Republicans to the House of Representatives (out of a state delegation of 18), reelected noted fiscal conservative Pat Toomey in the most expensive Senate race in U.S. history, and expanded Republican majorities in both chambers of the state legislature to the highest level either party has enjoyed in over 60 years.

How did this shift happen so quickly? The truth is, it didn't. Changing demographics, voter revolts against the political establishment, and the financial strain of big government have all been transforming Pennsylvania, typically considered one of the largest "blue" or at least "purple" states in the nation, into the reddest state in the Northeast.

This gives the Keystone State's nickname new meaning. Pennsylvania stands at the cusp of enacting transformational policies that could serve as "brushfires of freedom" throughout the Northeast and the nation. And for taxpayers, that transformation cannot come quickly enough.

A State on the Brink

The backdrop for the dramatic change in Pennsylvania is the cumulative failure of big government policies. For decades, the state has hovered at the bottom of nearly every measure of economic growth and opportunity. From 1970 to 2015, the state ranked 49th in job growth, 45th in personal income growth, and 48th in population growth.

The state remains saddled with Prohibition-era restrictions on liquor sales. Its public schools, while spending $3,500 more per pupil than the national average, are underachieving. More than 100,000 Pennsylvanians have migrated from the state in just the last three years. Last year alone, Pennsylvania—still the sixth-largest state in the nation—lost one resident, net, to another state every 12.5 minutes. Over the past eight decades, the state's representation in Congress has plunged from 36 seats to 18, cutting its Electoral College votes nearly in half, from 38 to 20.