What living in a battleground state means for Penn students

As the United States approaches the midterm elections this November, Penn students can expect to see political flyers, on-campus tabling efforts, and community members campaigning on Locust Walk.

Between the election this fall and a presidential race in two years, Pennsylvanians will have the power to influence the country’s political landscape. As candidates look to court voters, here’s what Penn students can expect when casting their ballots at school. 

This November, State Rep. Chris Rabb (D-200) is the Democratic nominee to represent Pennsylvania’s third congressional district, while Gov. Josh Shapiro is seeking re-election to the state’s highest office. The outcomes of both upcoming elections will help set the stage for the 2028 presidential election — where Pennsylvania is likely to  be a key battleground state again.

Rabb secured the Democratic nomination to represent Penn’s district this May, after handily defeating the opposition in a three-way race against Penn professor Ala Stanford and 1999 University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School graduate State Sen. Sharif Street (D-3). Because Rabb is running uncontested, he is almost certain to take the House seat this November.

“I certainly think that it was surprising both that Rabb won and particularly the magnitude of his victory,” political science professor Daniel Hopkins told The Daily Pennsylvanian in May after the progressive candidate’s decisive primary win.

Rabb, who graduated from Penn in 2006 with a master’s in organizational dynamics, is a member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America. Following the election, a Penn Democrats spokesperson wrote to the DP that the race was a “significant indicator of the political mood” within the Democratic Party. 

Meanwhile, Shapiro is aiming to fend off Pennsylvania State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, the Republican challenger in the state’s gubernatorial election. 

Shapiro’s re-election bid, which he launched in January, comes as he is widely rumored to run for president in 2028.

This January, Shapiro said that his policy goals for a second term in office included raising the minimum wage, protecting reproductive freedom, and increasing clean energy production.

Over the last few years, Shapiro’s administration has increased its influence on Penn’s campus — including through helping shape the University’s response to incidents of campus antisemitism.

In fall 2023, Shapiro invoked a long-unused University statute that allows the governor of Pennsylvania to appoint a nonvoting observer to the University Board of Trustees. He chose 1982 College graduate Robert Fox, whom he also appointed as a nonvoting member on the University Task Force on Antisemitism.

Documents showed that Shapiro and Fox pushed for the firing of one University professor and the public condemnation of another. The two embraced an expansive definition of “antisemitic speech,” and intervened in Penn’s 2024 election for the chair of the Board of Trustees.

Pennsylvania was also a decisive factor in the last general election. 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump’s victory in Pennsylvania came after his campaign and former Vice President Kamala Harris made concerted efforts to campaign across the state.

At the time, the Brookings Institution described Pennsylvania as “the presidential election’s most important state.” The state led Trump to his victory in 2016 and former Penn professor and President Joe Biden to his win four years later. 

Both of Penn’s largest student partisan political organizations — Penn Democrats and College Republicans — noted increased participation and membership as the 2024 election approached. Both groups hosted various events throughout the election cycle, including debate watch parties, tabling sessions, and discussions with political figures.

On election day, Penn’s four primary polling locations saw a 450% increase in in-person voting relative to the 2020 election. The Penn community voted overwhelmingly for Harris, who won 81.6% of the in-person votes cast at on-campus polling locations.

Since then, Penn students have continued to display high levels of political engagement. Despite being an off-year election, turnout last year approached a record high and amounted to nearly half of the votes cast in 2024.

In this past year, a slew of conservative pundits have visited Penn’s campus. In April, Ben Shapiro appeared before a sold-out crowd for a talk organized by Wharton School’s chapter of the Adam Smith Society, an association for MBA students and professionals at Penn. Right-wing blogger and computer scientist Curtis Yarvin also held a sit-down on campus. 

That same month, conservative political commentator Steven Crowder was scheduled to debate Penn professor Jonathan Zimmerman. Although the event was ultimately cancelled over safety concerns, Crowder’s producer offered Zimmerman the opportunity to hold the debate elsewhere at the time.

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