The Pennsylvania disaster that could have been avoided

Democrats just scored a shocking win in Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s state Senate special election. This is a seat in a district that President Trump carried by 15 points in November. A deep-red district. A “safe” seat. And yet we lost.

Let me say something few in politics have the courage to admit: I got this one wrong.

We cannot afford to sit out the mail-in game and hope for a red wave to appear by magic on Election Day.

I want to make sure every patriot understands exactly what happened — and what it means for the future of freedom in Pennsylvania and across the country.

Citizens Alliance offered to activate the PA CHASE program to protect the 36th Senate District seat. We were prepared to mobilize ballot chasers, execute our mail-in voting strategy, and ensure that Republican turnout matched the intensity of the left. But we were told it wouldn’t be necessary. GOP insiders said the special election would be “a cakewalk.” Consultants assured us that the Republican candidate would cruise to victory by double digits.

They were wrong. And I was wrong to believe them.

Let’s be very clear about why this happened. The Democrats crushed us in mail-in voting.

Democrat mail-in votes totaled 8,869, while Republican mail-in votes lagged at 3,547.

That means that the GOP candidate earned just 28.5% of the mail-in vote.

Our internal modeling for Pennsylvania has been consistent and accurate: To win statewide or in swing districts, Republicans must hit 33% of the mail-in vote. In 2024, President Trump got 34.5% of the mail-in vote, thanks in part to our PA CHASE efforts. But in this race, we came up short.

The proof is right in front of us. The rules in Pennsylvania give Democrats a 50-day head start on voting. They use every one of those days to chase ballots, engage low-propensity voters, and dominate the mail-in process. Republicans have been asleep at the wheel.

Do I like mail-in voting? No. I believe in one day of voting with ID. But that’s not the system we have. And until it changes, we must compete under the rules in place.

We cannot afford to sit out the mail-in game and hope for a red wave to appear by magic on Election Day. That’s a losing strategy, and the Lancaster loss is proof. Democrats are building momentum, infrastructure, and habits that will carry them through every cycle unless we match them with precision and resolve.

The good news? We know how to fix it.

We officially relaunched the PA CHASE program for 2025. Our mission is clear: Knock on 500,000 doors every year and deliver victories at every level of government. We’ve built the data models. We’ve trained the teams. We’ve proven it works.

But we need more patriots to step up.

We can’t let complacency cost us any more seats.

Let Lancaster County serve as a wake-up call. If Republicans don’t get serious about mail-in voting, we will keep losing seats that should be safely in our column. We will keep watching the Democrats run laps around us while we pretend it’s still 2004.

I’ll take the hit for this one. I should have pushed harder. I should have raised the funds and targeted this critical special election despite the naysayers. That won’t happen again.

The path forward is clear. Fight fire with fire. Chase every ballot. Win.