Republicans flip Northeast Philly state Senate seat, which Dems called ‘the most embarrassing part’ of the election results

Republicans flipped a Northeast Philadelphia state Senate seat Thursday, sending 29-year-old Joe Picozzi to Harrisburg as the first GOP state senator to represent Philly in more than two decades.

Philadelphia Democrats are reeling over the loss in the Northeast — which saw strong GOP turnout for the deep-blue city and where Republicans also almost flipped a state House seat — and several operatives said privately that the city and state parties did not appreciate the threat Picozzi posed until he had already gained traction in the district.

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Picozzi will unseat incumbent Sen. Jimmy Dillon, a former Notre Dame University point guard who runs basketball academies across the city. Dillon was first elected in 2022 during a special election to fill the remainder of John Sabatina Jr.'s term after he was elected as a judge.

The Associated Press called the race Thursday for Picozzi before the number of outstanding provisional ballots in the district was released by the city. Dillon did not concede, and a spokesperson for Dillon said Thursday afternoon that without those numbers, a race call is premature and the campaign will wait until all the votes are counted.

Senate Republican leaders moved the 5th Senatorial District into their district wish list last year, after seeing the 2023 mayoral results in Northeast Philadelphia, said Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland). She also saw it as a district Democrats had taken for granted. Plus, Picozzi, who moved back to his native Northeast neighborhood after spending years in Washington, D.C., was a "bundle of energy," which persuaded Ward to invest in the seat.

"I just knew when I was looking at [the district], we can do it. It's not easy, it's still 58% registered Democrat, but we can do this," Ward added. "When you get a candidate like that, you can do those things. I've never seen a candidate like that, ever. He's a machine."

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Internal polling in the district proved to Republicans that they could flip it, so Ward and the Senate Republican Campaign Committee continued to invest resources to support Picozzi's candidacy, she said.

Picozzi won without the support of the city Republican Party, but he had the big-dollar backing of the SRCC, which poured more than $750,000 into the race, according to campaign finance reports.

"I had so many people on Tuesday walking out saying 'I voted for you, do right by us,'" Picozzi said. "We've been let down so much by politicians, but I really plan to deliver."

Picozzi's team knocked on 70,000 doors across Northeast Philly. Picozzi said he personally worked on his campaign full-time, seven days a week.

It was a surprising end to Dillon's time in the state Senate — something that wasn't supposed to happen in the first place.

Dillon's older brother, Shawn Dillon, was initially the Democratic candidate to replace Sabatina back in 2022. But a paperwork error killed Shawn Dillon's candidacy, so Northeast Democrats subbed in Jimmy Dillon to run for the seat.

During his two years in office, Jimmy Dillon faced scrutiny over his spending reports and campaign filings. He also came under fire for racist and homophobic tweets posted to his basketball business account, which he denied posting, saying others had access to the account.

Democratic underestimation and another close race in Northeast Philly Still, one elected Democrat, who requested anonymity to speak freely about the dynamic, called Dillon's loss "the most embarrassing part" of Tuesday's election results and said state and city party officials didn't take the race seriously enough.

Senate Democrats and their top leaders didn't seriously start spending money on the race until October, with the lion's share of the $254,000 total spent coming only in the last weeks.

"That's our guy," the official said. "How did you lose that one? How did no one sound the alarm?"

Democrats knew that Republicans were targeting seats in the Northeast, which already has two elected Republicans representing them in the state House and City Council. Republicans also invested in the 172nd House District race against Democrat Sean Dougherty, the nephew of former labor leader John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty and son of Supreme Court Justice Kevin Dougherty.

Sean Dougherty won his race by just a few hundred votes, a narrow margin in the once-reliably blue district, with the Associated Press calling the race in his favor on Thursday. His GOP opponent, Aizaz Gill, had conceded a day earlier.

Reached Thursday, Sean Dougherty said he's "ready to get to work for my neighbors" after a nine-month whirlwind campaign. In a high-octane primary last spring, Dougherty, 30, beat out incumbent Rep. Kevin Boyle (D., Philadelphia), who had been wrongly issued an arrest warrant during the campaign.

Top Democrats did stump for Dillon in the Northeast later in the campaign. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker traveled to the district twice to campaign alongside him, and labor unions deployed resources to knock on doors on his behalf. Gov. Josh Shapiro also campaigned for him over the weekend before Election Day.

City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, who ran Black voter outreach programs in the lead-up to the election, started his day Tuesday in Northeast Philadelphia to campaign for Dillon and Dougherty. Asked if the party was concerned about holding onto those seats, Thomas said: "Isaiah Thomas is. They're very important."

State Sen. Sharif Street, chair of the Pennsylvania Democrats, said on Election Day that he was confident Dillon would be reelected.

"He's worked hard to put in the effort and knock doors," Street said, "and he's going to hold onto that seat."