By Whitney Downard | Reporter
“Every voter in Pennsylvania should matter in every presidential election, not just when it’s so tight a court has to decide who won it. We want voters in every state to participate and be involved in the presidential election.” — Patrick Rosenstiel, the senior consultant to National Popular Vote.
Hello, Monday! It’s a new week. House lawmakers will be in Harrisburg today, but don’t expect anything big — it’ll likely be mostly procedural items and retirement speeches.
We’re just 45 days away from Christmas and 26 days from Hanukkah — have you started your holiday shopping yet?
Thank you for starting your day with us and for reading, sharing and supporting our work. Thank you. — Tim.
Already enacted in 18 states and the District of Columbia, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact would bypass the Electoral College to guarantee the candidate with the most votes across the country wins the presidency. (Photo by Peter Hall/Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
Pennsylvania’s Democratic trifecta renews calls to join Popular National Vote compact
By Peter Hall
Democrats’ midterm victories in Pennsylvania and other swing states have prompted renewed interest in an alternative to the Electoral College that proponents have urged the commonwealth to join.
With Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s reelection and majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly, Democrats have a clear runway to launch popular progressive initiatives, such as increasing the minimum wage and protecting abortion rights under state law.
The commonwealth’s blue trifecta would also make it easier for lawmakers to pass legislation that supporters say would ensure that every vote counts in presidential elections.
Already enacted in 18 states and the District of Columbia, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact would guarantee the candidate with the most votes across the country wins the presidency. Pennsylvania’s neighboring states Delaware, New Jersey and New York are among the members of the compact.
Fourth graders sit at their classroom tables in Oklahoma City. A new government watchdog report raises concerns about oversight of education spending and absenteeism data. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
By Carly Sitrin, Chalkbeat
Tuesday night’s Democratic midterm election sweep handed the party control of the swing state’s governorship and both chambers of the General Assembly, which could mean significant changes ahead for statewide education policy.
For the first time in more than three decades, Pennsylvania will have a governing trifecta. Gov. Josh Shapiro coasted to reelection, Democrats expanded their majority in the state House, and gained control of the state Senate for the first time since 1993.
Public school advocates hope the Democratic takeover will accelerate school funding efforts that Republican lawmakers had mostly resisted.
U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks to reporters after a campaign town hall hosted alongside End Citizens United in Lansing on Oct. 9. (Photo by Katherine Dailey/Michigan Advance)
By Kate Wells, KFF Health News
Fifteen years working as an emergency room nurse has convinced Kim Bogan that the only way to fix the American healthcare system is to tear it down and start over.
Her patients arriving for triage are sicker than ever. They can’t afford many of the prescriptions they get in the ER. And sometimes when patients die, she wonders if she could have saved them had she not been caring for five or six other people at once.
That’s why she spent the past year shuttling between 12-hour shifts at this city’s Sparrow Hospital and campaigning for Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat who made “Medicare for All” a signature issue in his congressional campaign and is now a senator-elect.
“Whatever else people voted for in this midterm election — anger about inflation, anger about corruption, anger about the Iran war — they by and large didn’t vote to have the government take over health insurance,” said Jonathan Oberlander, a professor and healthcare reform expert at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Crime scene tape surrounds an entry to the Barus & Holley engineering building at Brown University. The rate of violent crime victimization declined 25% between 2024 and 2025, while the rate of property crime victimization fell 19%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics’ preliminary National Crime Victimization Survey. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
By Amanda Watford, Stateline
A new federal report released the week before Tuesday’s midterm elections found that Americans experienced declines in several categories of violent and property crime victimization in 2025, including aggravated assaults, burglaries and motor vehicle thefts.
The preliminary survey findings from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics offers a fresh look at crime trends as the country emerges from another election cycle, providing new data on Americans’ experiences with crime, including incidents never reported to police.
The rate of violent crime, excluding simple assault, declined 25% between 2024 and 2025, while the rate of property crime victimization fell 19%, according to the agency’s National Crime Victimization Survey.
Independent reporting on Pennsylvania state government that impacts communities statewide — free to read and republish.
Election Day might be behind us, but our coverage is just beginning. The Pennsylvania Capital-Star spent the election season helping people across the commonwealth make informed decisions through our voter guide.
Now, we’ll be following the results because everyone deserves to know what their elected leaders are doing in their name and how their policy decisions impact their communities.
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TODAY IN THE CAPITAL-STAR
Trump administration delays awards slated to improve rural America’s health: Federal leaders overseeing a $50 billion rural health fund missed a critical deadline to announce how much they’ll give states next year, alerting state leaders to the delay with a mass email.
Despite fears, voting ran smoothly across the country: After two years of worries about whether the Trump administration would interfere with the midterm elections, nothing extraordinary happened on Election Day. The problems that surfaced across the country were largely sporadic and manageable, even typical.
ICYMI
As Democrats gain power in Pa., some business leaders wonder about moderation: Having a Democratic majority for the first time since 1993 is “a sea change in Pennsylvania politics.”
Trump’s gerrymandering push flops as Democrats win redrawn seats: The Republican project to gerrymander congressional districts across the country, initiated by President Donald Trump more than a year ago, failed to deliver significant wins for the party — and in North Carolina, even worked against it.
What will Democrats do with their newfound power?: The blue wave that swept across Tuesday’s midterm election will deliver Democrats new power over state government, giving them the opportunity to advance long-sought policy changes. Democratic lawmakers from multiple states pledged to attack rising prices, protect reproductive rights, pass new gun safety measures and grow the housing supply.
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