The Republican Committee of Allegheny County has elected a new party chair. Allegheny County Councilman Sam DeMarco bested committee treasurer Bronco Brnardic in a 213-157 vote on Saturday, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“Allegheny County is now the largest source of Republican votes in Pennsylvania,” DeMarco said in a press release. “Our county committee will harness that voting power and end the liberal stranglehold on local office.”
DeMarco, who was first elected as an at-large member of county council in 2015, is the only Republican countywide elected official in Allegheny County.
The Allegheny County GOP was previously led by D. Raja, who announced his plans to resign in late May. The announcement from Raja came one month after his special election loss in the state’s 37th Senate District to Democrat Pam Iovino, in a seat previously represented by now GOP Congressman Guy Reschenthaler. Raja led the local party from 2015 until 2019, but calls for him to resign started to grow after his third unsuccessful attempt for elected office, once for County Executive and twice for the state’s 37th Senate District.
As momentum has increasingly gone towards the Democrats in the county, DeMarco believes the local party needs fixing and his election signifies a new beginning. When asked if he thought the local party was broken, he said “absolutely.”
“I think it absolutely is, or was, because we’re going to fix it,” DeMarco said of the party being “broken” according to KDKA. “Our failure to even field candidates for positions, we’re not giving people a choice.”
KDKA reports that no Republicans filed to run for District Attorney, Treasurer, County Controller and five of the seven county council district seats.
Allegheny County is the only county is western Pennsylvania that President Donald Trump did not win in 2016. Since Trump’s election, Democrats have picked up seats in the county, including Rep. Conor Lamb’s special election victory in 2018 and Iovino’s state Senate win earlier this year.
Despite losing seats since Trump’s election, DeMarco said the President will make it easier to help rebuild the Republican Party in the county.
“He’s making it easier because I’m telling you, there’s a tremendous amount of enthusiasm around him,” DeMarco said according to KDKA.
Despite Democrats having a voter advantage in the county and significantly outnumbering Republicans in countywide seats, DeMarco believes the local GOP can play a significant role in Trump’s reelection, WESA reports.
Allegheny County has the highest number of registered Republicans, 264,000, for any county in the state.
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13 Responses
The fact that Sam stood up to one of the highest republican officials in WPA, in the State for that matter, and said “Let the committee decide”, speaks volumes. Turzai then worked against him, asked me not to vote for him, and many others. Congratulations Mr Chairman! you placed us ahead of Turzai and you made him look weak in the process (which he is). No Where to go for the County GOP but up from here!
Good Luck !!
Well then—turns out the Republican Speaker of House is yesterday’s news in Allegheny County GOP circles.
What’s that on his head? It sort of looks like hair.
It looks like he ran it over with his car on the way to the photo shoot
Is that a rug or a very bad haircut?
Scoop it off with a shovel.
Yes, there is enthusiasm amongst Trump’s supporters. His brand of mixing racism with nationalism and combining both appeals to a certain element. No question about it. The problem for Trump is that Allegheny is now an educated country on the whole. There is a direct inverse correlation between educated counties and support for Donald Trump. I know people don’t like to read that but it the absolute truth. Trump will not help the GOP in Allegheny. Some of the smaller counties that connect to, or are near Allegheny? Sure. It won’t help DeMarco though. While he is saying they will marry themselves to Trump, watch the actual local campaigns. They will run them as if Trump doesn’t exist. Nothing negative. Nothing whatsoever.
Sorry, you can’t be for African Americans and for open borders. African Americans are the ones who largely pay the freight on illegal immigration while whites reap the benefits of cheap labor. Sorry, but dems are the racists throwing blacks under the bus. If the GOP has any brains, they would make this point that seems to be ignored by the left and the media.
No idea what you are referring to. Is that an answer to my post or just a ramble off the top of your head?
You seem confused about whatever you are trying to say.
Do you REALLY care about people of color or do you just a bigot?
That is the new meme they are trying to push. You see it all over the internet now.
Generally a good idea to post only when somewhat sober.