Democrats score control of Pennsylvania House for first time in 12 years

The current House speaker's fate is somewhat unclear as Democrats are likely to nominate a more traditional candidate to lead the lower chamber.

By Ben Whedon

Pennsylvania Democrats on Tuesday claimed control of the state House for the first time in 12 years after sweeping three special elections and achieving an outright majority.

Democrats narrowly won a majority of seats in the 2022 midterm elections, but a pair of resignations and one death gave Republicans a narrow edge going into the session. Both parties came to an unusual arrangement in the short term, electing state Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Democrat, as a compromise candidate for House speaker.

Rozzi was supposed to drop his Democratic registration as part of the arrangement, but never did so, Fox News reported. Accordingly, the Democrat sweep of the Pittsburgh-area special elections will split the chamber 102-101 in favor of the Democrats.

The current House speaker's fate is somewhat unclear as Democrats are likely to nominate a more traditional candidate to lead the lower chamber. Should he opt to vote for himself, however, any Democratic nominee would require Republican support assuming all legislators vote.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.