Voters make selections at their voting booths inside an early voting site on Oct. 17, 2024 in Hendersonville, North Carolina. (Photo by Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)
After Pennsylvania turned red in the 2024 election, Republican state committee members convened earlier this month to elect a new leader. State Sen. Greg Rothman (R-Cumberland), who earned the bulk of establishment support, including endorsements from U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, and Treasurer Stacy Garrity, was elected Pennsylvania Republican Party Chair. He takes over for Chairman Lawrence Tabas, who did not seek reelection. Rothman defeated Bill Bachenberg, a businessman and first vice president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), by a vote of 248 to 120 for the position.
The former chair of the Cumberland County Republican Party will now oversee the state party operation that consists of roughly 380 committee members from across the commonwealth. He’ll be tasked with working with and electing Republicans at all levels of government in Pennsylvania.
He told the Capital-Star he sees one of his responsibilities as party chair is to support the agenda of President Donald Trump, who won the state’s 19 electoral votes in November.
“So whether it’s the border, the war in Ukraine, or the hostages in the Middle East, we will be involved in talking about those issues too because I see our role as helping the president and his agenda, too,” Rothman said.
Rothman will continue to work as a state legislator, like state Sen. Sharif Street (D-Philadelphia), who leads the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
He spoke with the Capital-Star for an interview to discuss a wide range of topics including his goals for the Pennsylvania Republican Party by the next presidential election, endorsing candidates, mail-in voting, and thoughts on Elon Musk’s role in Trump’s administration.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Capital-Star: Republicans had a successful year in Pennsylvania in 2024 with Donald Trump winning the state.
Rothman: I think the best since 1866.
Capital-Star: It was that strong of a year, you think for Republicans in Pennsylvania?
Rothman: Yeah, if you think about winning five statewide elections, including President Trump’s election, beating the dynasty of the Casey (family), Bob Casey for the Senate, picking up two congressional seats, which were not predicted that we would win, and winning a Senate seat in Northeast Philadelphia. That’s a pretty good year, all three row officers.
Capital-Star: That’s correct. However, the balance of power didn’t change in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. So why do you think voters across the state voted for some Democrats down ballot, even though you made those gains in those other races that you mentioned statewide?
Rothman: Look, I can only quote the person who helped make it happen, Joanna McClinton.
She said, you know, the Democrats getting into the majority goes through the redistricting process. They drew a map that was clearly gerrymandered, and that map made it difficult for Republicans to win.
I wasn’t involved in the House races… its my understanding the Democrats outspent Republicans two to one, and yet we still came within a handful of votes of winning that Frank Burns seat in Cambria County that would have given the majority. And…it’s 101-101, right now, and anything can happen.
Capital-Star: In recent years, we’ve seen a trend of Pennsylvania voters registering more as independents. So what would you say to those who have decided to register independent? What’s your message to them to try to bring them to try to bring them back into the Republican Party?
Rothman: It’s a good question, but you also have to note the trend of Republicans increasing registration.
We went from just 10 years ago having 1.2 million more Democrats registered than Republicans to we’re less than 200,000 right now.
So, there’s a huge trend in Republicans getting close to the number of registered voters as Democrats.
But there’s 10-12% of voters who are independents. I represented a district in the House that had 15% independents, so I spent a lot of time analyzing who independents are.
In this past election, Trump won the independent votes, by I think plus eight or nine points, so we need common sense policy.
Generally, independents aren’t as concerned about issues as they are what’s going on in their life.
So, if we as Republicans can deliver a better economy and get prices down and end these wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, which President Trump’s already starting to do that, and have economic policies that put more money in their pockets and allow them to pay their bills and buy things, then those independents will vote with Republicans.
So, I think that’s what we saw in the last election. They rejected the democratic policies of the last four years.
Capital-Star: I know you’ve been on the record supporting mail-in voting. You even said in an interview with PoliticsPA’s Voice of Reason Podcast that Republicans need to embrace it, and you said, “We need to codify some of that in the law.” Can you expand upon that? What do you mean by saying codifying some of the mail-in voting into law?
Rothman: So, it wasn’t the mail-in voting. Certainly, we need to embrace every type of voting, including mail-in, but what needs to be codified is early voting, where you can go in and request a ballot. I did it two weeks before the election. Governor Shapiro did it two weeks before the election, but we were told there’s no such thing as early voting in Pennsylvania. We need to change the law to allow people to go get ballots before in person and vote in person in their county, which hundreds did.
I mean, overwhelmingly, a number of people did it so much it overwhelmed some of the southeastern counties.
But, I’m personally for it and could see us doing some pre-canvassing to allow early voting.
And I’ve talked to Democrats and Republicans that it’s time for us to have some sort of voter ID in Pennsylvania. My 10-year-old goes to the public library and checks out a book and has to show her ID. You have to show an ID almost everywhere else in public to get into buildings and get on a train and certainly to get on an airplane. This is a sacred act of voting, and you should have to have an ID and show an ID.
So I think there is some common ground on election reform.
I think we did a good job in getting results out quickly this year. I think that’s important. I had an amendment that went into Act 88 that said you have to start counting when the when the polls close, and you can’t stop counting until you have results, within reason, and I think that the state did a good job, the Department of State did a good job in working with the counties to make sure that happened this time.
If you’re in the business of running campaigns and winning elections, you want to make sure that the results are accepted and we have full confidence in the results, and I think we did in this past election, and I’m hoping that we continue to build on that.
Capital-Star: One follow up question to that, though, some Republicans at this point are still not totally on board with mail-in voting. State Representative Russ Diamond has a co-sponsorship memo he released saying that he plans to introduce legislation that would “amend Pennsylvania’s constitution to end no excuse mail in voting by letting the voters decide.” So what would you say to Republicans who don’t support mail in voting as of right now?
Rothman: Well, look, I have great respect for Rep. Diamond. We served together in the House. I consider him a friend, and he is a thoughtful, smart guy.
The Republican that I look to for guidance in this past election, when it came to mail-in voting was President Trump, and he said, go vote by mail if that’s the only way you can vote. I think where voter turnout was 75% and that’s just of the people registered to vote. So there’s still 25% of the voters who in this past election, could’ve voted and didn’t vote.
Well, we don’t know why they didn’t vote. Did they not vote because they were busy working or had to deal with kids or had to be out of town for something, and just weren’t able to get a ballot in?
So, I think we should be striving to have 100% voter participation.
Capital-Star: In 2022, there was chatter about the Pennsylvania Republicans Party’s decision to not endorse candidates in the primary race for governor and U.S. Senate. I know you were not chair at that time, but there will be a race for governor next year in Pennsylvania. Will the Pennsylvania Republican Party endorse a candidate in the primary race next year for governor? Or do you think it would make more sense for the state party to stay out of endorsing a candidate ahead of the primary election?
Rothman: I think that the state party has every right to endorse a candidate. It’s made up of people who have been elected by their respective counties and their respective committees. They have been elected because they have that discernment and they have the experience, and they understand what it takes to be a good candidate and to win an election, which is part of what the endorsement’s about, it’s about finding the best candidate.
There are certainly times when not having an endorsement is a preference, but that’s up to the state committee members, and I think unless I know who the candidate is, it’s just all speculation.
But…endorsing early, I think, made a huge difference for Dave McCormick.
When it makes sense to endorse, we’ll endorse, and we’re just going to have to see. But I think that my job right now is to put the party in a position where we have an infrastructure in place and we have resources that we can elect a Republican governor and beat Josh Shapiro, which I think he is beatable.
Capital-Star: Do you think the governing approach for Republicans in Pennsylvania should be towards a purple state or should they treat Pennsylvania as a red state?
Rothman: My goal is when I leave this four year term in 2028 that Pennsylvania is like Ohio or Florida, where it’s a reliable red state, so much so that in the 2028 presidential election, my hope is that your televisions aren’t overrun with ads for president, because the Democrats say Pennsylvania can’t be won.
And that may seem hugely optimistic, except for when you consider that in 2000 Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania were all considered swing states.
So, the fact that you know what we did in this last election, where the trends are going to towards voter registration, the inroads that President Trump has made with minorities, with what we’ve done in Philadelphia, there are lots of paths to turning Pennsylvania into a permanently red state, and that’s my objective.
Capital-Star: Right now in the news, we’ve seen discussions about federal workers being concerned that some of them may be let go due to DOGE…the Department of Government Efficiency. What do you say to the federal workers in Pennsylvania or companies with federal contracts who may be concerned about potentially losing their jobs or contracts?
Rothman: I think the taxpayers and the voters in Pennsylvania and around the country should be alarmed that there are people that are working and being paid that can’t tell you what they’ve done the last…and I can tell you the five things I did this morning.
They ought to be able to tell you what they’ve done in the past week. This not working at an office, I mean, there are jobs that maybe some people can do better from home, but I don’t think that anybody should be complaining that they were asked what they actually do for a living and what they’re doing for that paycheck they’re getting.
So my guess is the people who work for the federal government in Pennsylvania, because I know some of them are all hard workers that are doing their job and doing it well, and can show what they’ve done in the last week, the five things they’ve done, and the rest of them ought to be ashamed of themselves for collecting a paycheck and not doing work.
So, I’m all for efficiency in government and appreciate what Elon Musk and his team is doing.
Capital-Star: So we’ve seen some protests about Elon Musk’s approach leading the Department of Government Efficiency. You mentioned how Republicans have made inroads with voters in Philadelphia and some other areas that they have not previously…Are you concerned about DOGE’s potential impact on voters where Republicans have made inroads as of late, in particularly again, the 2024 election?
Rothman: First of all, I think these protests are these, these are pop up protesters that are funded by the left. I don’t think they’re organic, and I certainly don’t think that they’re real.
And I think that the people in Philadelphia are agreeing with the common sense that, wait a minute…you’re allowing government to waste money?
I mean, the USAID stuff was just startling, the amount of money that was being wasted and being sent and sort of laundered through NGOs, and it ends up back in the hands of Democratic operatives.
So I think when they find out about this, as they’re finding out about this, they’ll come to the Republican Party, not go away from it.
Capital-Star: What are the goals for Pennsylvania’s Republican Party that would make 2025 and 2026 successful years?
Rothman: We want to win these two judge races. We have two outstanding candidates in Judge Ann Marie Wheatcraft for superior court and Matt Wolford, a former prosecutor, for Commonwealth Court.
We want to get registration by the 2026 election to parity, where we have the same number of registration Democrats to Republicans, and we want to put us in a place where we can win back the majority in the House, because, as you mentioned before, that was one disappointment for Republicans. In 2026,… we’re not going to have that disappointment again.
And we want to beat Josh Shapiro, which I understand is going to take a lot of work, because he’s a very good politician, but we feel like, based on the numbers, we can do that.
