With a special election that will decide control of the Pennsylvania state house of representatives nearing, Democrats are investing substantially in the race in an effort to hold the lower chamber, which could play a decisive role in setting policy in the 2024 election.

Currently, Republicans control Pennsylvania’s state senate and Governor Shapiro is a Democrat. Democrats also hold a five-to-two majority on the state supreme court.

So, the February 13 vote at Bucks County could prove decisive in the lead-up to the presidential election, as Pennsylvania, a swing state, has faced myriad challenges to election laws and procedures in recent years. 

That includes 2020, when President Trump blamed his narrow loss there in part to state supreme court rulings that allowed mail-in ballots to be counted even if they arrived after Election Day, and upheld a state law allowing no-excuse mail-in voting in the election.

In the upcoming race, the Democratic nominee, Jim Prokopiak, a Pennsbury School Board member, faces the GOP nominee, Candace Cabanas, the Lancaster City representative.

While a state house race like the coming special election at Bucks County typically passes under the radar, both parties currently control 101 seats in the Pennsylvania house, meaning that the winner of the special election will also win a majority in the state’s lower chamber.

As it stands, Democrats maintain nominal control of the state house with Speaker Joanna McClinton leading the chamber. Without a working majority, though, the body is deadlocked.

With control of the state house on the line, both the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and the Republican State Leadership Committee are investing in the race.

A spokesman for the Democrats’ committee, Abhi Rahman, tells the Sun that the “stakes couldn’t be higher” in 2024, because “this Bucks County race will have implications across the Keystone State and for future elections to come.”

“If Republicans win back the speaker’s gavel next month, they’ll move forward with their plans to ban abortion and institute their MAGA agenda,” Mr. Rahman says.

The committee announced earlier this month that it would invest $50,000 in the Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus.

While the GOP has not announced a similar investment in the race, it has unveiled an effort to get Republicans in the Keystone State to vote by mail this year, though it’s not clear if the program will be rolled out in time for the special election.

Neither the Republican State Legislative Committee nor the state Republican Party have responded to requests for comment from the Sun.

While parties in Pennsylvania have their own set of priorities if they win control of the House, the election could have implications for election law in Pennsylvania, which was last overhauled in 1937 but has been amended over the years.

The biggest change came in 2019, when the state eliminated straight ticket voting, where voters make a single mark to vote for one party in every race, and expanded mail-in voting.

Pennsylvania has in recent years seen numerous election related lawsuits, and in some instances the underlying election laws have not been updated to reflect the court ruling. In one instance in 2022, Republicans in the state filed a lawsuit under a month before the November’s midterms claiming that undated mail-in ballots should not be counted. 

While a federal court ruled that the state should accept undated ballots, a change in statute could put the issue to rest.

Likewise, the issue of so-called ballot curing — when voters fix their ballots after submitting them with any of a variety of errors or deficiencies — could also rear its head in 2024. While the state supreme court has ruled that ballot curing is allowed but not required, the state legislature could take action to fix the ambiguity.