I wanted to walk you through the Adams County election results. By any measure, we should be proud of what we accomplished.
Turnout reached nearly 40%, which is remarkable for an off-year election with no major statewide races. I believe our Get out the vote (GOTV) efforts played a crucial role. We do not yet have firm numbers on the party breakdown of the 30,003 ballots cast, but anecdotally, it appears Democrats over-performed.
Mail-in ballots were especially important this year: 28% of all votes were cast by mail, and those ballots broke overwhelmingly for Democrats.
To get a sense of the county’s “baseline,” I looked at the Commonwealth Court race, which had no third-party candidate. The Democratic candidate received 41.2% of the vote—well above the 32% share of registered Democrats in Adams County. Early voting drove much of this over-performance, but our Election Day GOTV efforts also ensured the in-person Democratic vote did not lag.
School Board Results
In Gettysburg, Democrats Kathleen Pratt and Ryan Kerney both won. Notably, in every school board race where a candidate appeared on both the Democratic and Republican ballots, that candidate won.
We also picked up one seat in Littlestown, due to only three Republicans running for four seats—again, none of the candidates there cross-filed.
In Upper Adams, only one candidate cross-filed (appearing on both ballots), and she won easily. The remaining three seats went to Republicans.
Lessons and Priorities for the Future
These results underscore the fact that Democrats can win here—and we need to encourage candidates to step forward. To maximize success, we should focus on four key actions:
- Strongly encourage Democrats to vote early.
- Use VAN to track early voters and guide them to complete and return their ballots.
- In races that allow cross-filing, do it—and work hard in the primary to win both lines.
- Maintain and strengthen our Election Day GOTV program to turn out our voters.
Ed Rendell once told me he never expected to win Adams County, but if he could get 40%, he felt he had succeeded because it eased pressure on heavily Democratic counties. Looking at the three Supreme Court retention votes this year, we exceeded even that benchmark—48.8% of voters supported the Democratic position. That is extraordinary.
Finally, a misstep by Republicans proved costly: they mailed campaign literature before mail-in ballots were even sent out. This gave Democrats plenty of time to counter with our own messaging. Timing matters—and the results bear that out.
Thank you all once again for your contributions, both financial and organizational. Please feel free to share this with your volunteers.
