A State of Voter Apathy in Pennsylvania?

Around the country, voters are angry, though what they’re angry about varies depending on where they live. In parts of Pennsylvania, especially suburban Philadelphia, apathy seems to be the dominant voter mood. When will these voters rouse themselves, as other voters around the country are doing?

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, District Attorney Larry Krasner took office in 2018. One of the original George Soros-backed prosecutors, Krasner campaigned on and implemented a slew of alleged criminal justice reforms: de-prosecution of entire categories of crimes, reducing sentences for violent crimes, releasing criminals on bail, and other progressive policies. Homicides in Philadelphia, which had been as low as 246 in 2013, exploded to a new all-time record of 562 murders in 2021. Shootings and other violent crimes became daily occurrences. Did Philadelphians react by demanding Krasner’s recall, as San Franciscans did for Boudin? To the contrary: they reelected Krasner by an overwhelming margin in 2021.

Philadelphia is living through the final days of Mayor Jim Kenney, who also is term-limited. Kenney aided and abetted Krasner in ushering in violence in the city. He ushered out businesses, keeping taxes high and even threatening a new wealth tax. He couldn’t even get the trash picked up on time. Yet he was reelected easily. And unlike New York with Adams, Philadelphia has yet to see the emergence of a single common-sense, law-and-order candidate.

Even at the gubernatorial level, the contrasts are striking. Virginia bungled its way through four years under Democratic governor Ralph Northam. Northam pushed mask mandates, critical race theory in grade schools, bans against hair discrimination, criminal justice reform of all stripes, and anything else that he could fit under the general category of “equity.” Perhaps his progressive energies were an attempt to compensate for a medical school photo in which he appeared dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan or as a character in blackface – he declines to say which one he is in the image. A U.S. News survey ranked Northam as one of the ten least popular governors. Fed up, Virginians voted in Republican Glenn Youngkin as governor in 2021 after he promised to restore normality to the state’s education system and day-to-day life.  

In Pennsylvania, Democratic governor Tom Wolf is about as popular and effective as Northam was in Virginia. A scion of multigenerational privilege who pretended to be a man of the people by riding around in a jeep, Wolf touted every progressive policy that the Left could think up. He made policy and appointments based on his alleged commitment to the tenets of diversity, equity, and inclusion. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he shut down the state (exempting his own family business) until the legislature stripped him of his emergency powers. He claimed to be all for criminal justice reform but refused to order independent investigations of shootings by his own state police force, even when a state trooper killed four civilians in separate incidents. He botched budget negotiations, driving businesses out of the state. He ignored the violence in Philadelphia. Wolf’s approval ratings sank below 40%.

In this environment, it would be logical for voters to reject any echo of Wolf’s leadership and choose a new direction, as voters in Virginia did. Instead, the sole Democratic candidate for governor in Pennsylvania is Josh Shapiro, Wolf’s hand-picked choice to continue his policies. Shapiro’s campaign slogan might as well be “Four More Years of Wolf.” A tangle of contenders is vying for the Republican nomination, but none has yet forged the party cohesion that drove Youngkin to victory in Virginia.

Pennsylvania is a state with vast natural resources. In Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, it has two bookend cities that boast prestigious educational institutions, technology assets, and infrastructure. With visionary leaders at the state and local level, it could attract scores of businesses and thousands of workers who could live in the state at a fraction of the costs of New York or San Francisco. By cutting taxes and reestablishing safe streets, Pennsylvania could become a success story inside of a decade. But none of it can happen until Pennsylvania voters wake up. Their current electoral apathy does not bode well. From Philadelphia to the state capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania deserves better.    

Tom Hogan has served as a federal prosecutor, local prosecutor, and elected district attorney.  He currently is in private practice.