Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026

The Senate is blue. Democrats took control of the Pennsylvania state Senate on Wednesday, Nov. 4, which gives the party the governor's office and both chambers of the legislature for the first time since 1993, according to CBS Philadelphia. The Inquirer reports the new Senate will be 26 to 24 Democratic, after the party won four seats Republicans held and lost one in Lancaster County.

The 40th. One of those four seats is ours. According to PhillyVoice, which cited the Associated Press, Brian Wrightson (D) defeated Sen. Rosemary Brown (R) in the 40th District on Wednesday morning, and that call and one in the 16th District gave Democrats their majority. That came after our Wednesday edition went out with the race still open. Thanks to the reader who flagged that Brown conceded Tuesday night, shortly after Wrightson declared victory, according to WNEP, where she called her 16 years in office "an honor." State returns as of about 9 a.m. Wednesday show Wrightson at 51 percent (50,072 votes) and Brown at 49 percent (47,283), a gap of 2,789 votes across a district that covers all of Monroe and parts of Lackawanna and Wayne counties. All of these numbers are unofficial.

What the governor says. Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said Wednesday that the Senate "is going to be busier than ever before," according to The National Desk. He listed mass transit funding, a higher minimum wage and reproductive freedoms among his priorities, said a shared agenda is coming within weeks, and said he is willing to work with Republicans who want to work with him.

The big picture: Going into Nov. 3, Pennsylvania had divided government: Democratic Gov. Shapiro, a Democratic House by a razor-thin 103-100, and a Republican Senate at 27-23, a chamber the GOP has controlled since 1994. That structure helps explain three major stalemates we have discussed previously. On marijuana, the Democratic House (barely) passed legalization 102-101 in May 2025, but the bill died when the Senate Law and Justice Committee voted 7-3 against advancing it. On skill games, those casino-style games you used to see in bars and convenience stores, a mid-October deadline set by the state Supreme Court passed without a legislative fix, which forced their removal. On data centers, the House passed the data center ratepayer bill (HB 1834) 104-95, with most Republicans opposed. The one bipartisan win was a 197-5 House vote (HB 2198) to repeal the data center tax incentive, while broader regulation and moratorium fights stalled between the chambers.

The new balance is a Democratic trifecta for the first time since 1993: the Senate flipped to 26-24 and Democrats lead the House 111-88 with four races still uncalled. Democrats will control the Senate committees once the new members are seated, and Democrats had said they would move quickly on marijuana legalization if they won the Senate. Another issue we looked at is the minimum wage, which has been $7.25 an hour since 2009 (see Keystone State Shenanigans below). We shall see.

For years, each party could point at the other chamber when something did not get done. Democrats now control the governor's office and both chambers, so that excuse gets harder to use once the new members are seated. The dog just caught the bumper.

Not a Penn-Tsunami. A 26 to 24 margin is still very close and leaves little room for defections. My read is that the new fights will be inside the Democratic caucus. A two-seat Senate margin gives any gaming-friendly or moderate Democrat leverage on the skill games tax rate, the House's state-run store model for cannabis is not a given, and data center rules pit ratepayer politics against a governor who has welcomed data center investment.

In any case, the new members are not seated until January, so the lame-duck session (through Nov. 30) still runs under the old Republican Senate, and real action likely waits for the February budget.