How Tim DeFoor Won PA

Dauphin County Controller Tim DeFoor will be sworn-in as Pennsylvania’s Auditor General later today. 

His 3 point victory for the open seat over Democrat Nina Ahmad, former Deputy Mayor of Philadelphia, was the largest Republican victory of the statewide row office races in 2020 and the biggest swing in the GOP’s favor in comparison to the results of the 2016 race when incumbent Democratic Auditor General Eugene DePasquale secured nearly a 5 point win over Republican John Brown. 

Here’s how DeFoor regained this row office for the Republican Party. 

Although President Donald Trump was the highest GOP vote getter in Pennsylvania during the 2020 election, no Republican or any statewide candidate won more counties than DeFoor. He won 59 counties during his 2020 successful bid, flipping Beaver, Centre, Dauphin, Erie, and Luzerne from blue-to-red in the process. No other statewide candidate flipped more than 3 counties in comparison to 2016’s results for their respective party. 

The only counties that DeFoor lost to Ahmad were Allegheny, Chester, Delaware, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Monroe, Montgomery, and Philadelphia. 

DeFoor was also the lone statewide Republican candidate to carry the following four counties during the 2020 election: Bucks by 3%, Centre by 3.83%, Dauphin by 0.45%, and Erie by 3.05%. 

DeFoor was the highest performing Republican of the four statewide candidates in 45 counties, while outpacing Trump in 51 counties. Although Ahmad did successfully flip one county, Chester, in the win column for the Democrats in comparison to the 2016 Auditor General’s race, it was also the lone county in which DeFoor outpaced Trump by double digits. Trump lost Chester County by 17 points, while DeFoor lost the Philadelphia suburban county by just 5 points. 

DeFoor made significant improvements in comparison to Brown’s 2016 bid for Republicans. DeFoor improved his margins in 60 counties in comparison to Brown’s run against DePasquale. 42 of the counties in the state DeFoor made double digit improvements. 

DeFoor improved his margin of victory by 20+ points in comparison to Brown in the following 16 counties: Armstrong (27%), Beaver (21%), Cambria (31%), Clarion (23%), Clearfield (23%), Elk (27%), Fayette (28%), Forest (20%), Greene (30%), Indiana (24%), Jefferson (20%), Juniata (20%), Perry (20%), Somerset (24%), Washington (22%), and Westmoreland (20%).

8 Responses

  1. DeFoor won his race because: 1) his opponent was a female POC whose last name was Ahmad, and 2) there is no other reason.

    1. I suspect this is true. Most of PA still wants a man in charge. Kamala Harris is coming. Get used to it.

      1. Not only did the Treasurer’s race feature a woman beating a man, 8 of the last 9 statewide judges who were elected were women. So yeah, there is literally no compelling evidence that PA voters support men over women.

    2. Nothing to do with it. He was a POC too, and many split ticket voters ALSO voted Kamala Harris for VP, these same voters giving both candidates their victory. Nina Ahmed had very little relevant experience for this position and also was obviously ambitious and running for any open seat so she she could get to governor or senator. Her platform included a plethora of items that were entirely out of the preview of auditor general, which made both of my previous points obvious. Tim Defoor has a plethora of relevant experience and good Mark’s as a Republican elected in a blue county (Dauphin). DeFoor was the only Republican I voted for in 2020 as well as the first Republican I ever voted for, it took a lot for me to get there but I couldn’t vote for such an underqualified Dem nominee when the Republican was obviously a solid candidate. And I say this as someone who proudly voted for Kamala Harris as VP.

      1. Still funny to me that Progressives especially will go to that excuse instead of just admitting that they put a generally weak candidate up against a pretty strong one from the GOP

    3. “I lost cause everyone is racist”.

      Stfu. Garrity won for the same reason as he did. Moderate Republicans and moderate dems turned out to vote against Trump and against Dems who overstepped their authority in this pandemic.

      Stop blaming race when you have nothing to support it and all evidence to the contrary.

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