Democrat Tom Wolf wins 2nd term as Pennsylvania governor
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and his wife Frances arrive at Eagle Fire Company in Mount Wolf, Pa., to vote on midterm Election Day Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. First-term Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf is challenged by Republican Scott Wagner, the owner of a waste hauling company and a former state senator. (Bill Kalina/York Dispatch via AP)
FILE - In this Oct., 2017 file photo combination Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidates Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf, left, and Republican Scott Wagner are shown. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Gov. Tom Wolf talks with Judge of Elections John Brenner before voting at Eagle Fire Company in Mount Wolf, Pa., on midterm Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. (Bill Kalina/York Dispatch via AP)
Gov. Tom Wolf, left, is greeted by a voter at the Eagle Fire Company poll in Mount Wolf, Pa., on midterm Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. Wolf voted there with his wife Frances. (Bill Kalina photo/York Dispatch via AP)
Gov. Tom Wolf, right, is greeted by minority inspector James Kinder while voting at Eagle Fire Company in Mount Wolf, Pa., on midterm Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. (Bill Kalina/York Dispatch via AP)
Tracy Wagner, left, looks on as her husband, Republican candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania Scott Wagner addresses media after casting his vote at Grumbacher Sport and Fitness Center in Spring Garden Township, Pa., Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. (Dawn J. Sagert/York Dispatch via AP)
Republican candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania Scott Wagner addresses media after casting his vote at Grumbacher Sport and Fitness Center in Spring Garden Township, Pa., Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. (Dawn J. Sagert/York Dispatch via AP)
HARRISBURG (AP) — Tom Wolf won a second term as Pennsylvania governor on Tuesday, beating brash Republican challenger Scott Wagner and sending the Democrat back for another four years to share power with a GOP-controlled Legislature.
Wolf has said he will continue advancing his first-term priorities, including trying to fix funding inequities in public schools and seeking to impose a severance tax on the Marcellus Shale natural gas industry. But he will be up against Republican lawmakers who fought two extended budget battles with him and blocked many of his top priorities.
Even so, Wolf’s re-election will give Democrats a seat at the table for the first time in 30 years when Pennsylvania draws a new map of congressional districts after the 2020 Census.
The incumbent ran what analysts called a conservative campaign designed to limit mistakes and take advantage of Wagner’s liabilities. Wolf refused to debate Wagner more than once, and his campaign worked to capitalize on Wagner’s penchant for eyebrow-raising off-the-cuff comments. That included advising Wolf last month to put on a catcher’s mask because “I’m going to stomp all over your face with golf spikes.”
The two candidates were studies in contrast. Wolf is soft-spoken and chooses his words carefully. When Wagner announced his candidacy, he declared, “I am going to be the next governor, take that to the bank.”
Wagner, a 63-year-old former state senator who made millions from his garbage-hauling business, mostly self-financed his campaign. He had promised to cut taxes and rein in an out-of-control state government. But he fought an unexpectedly bruising and expensive three-way primary, and spent considerable time trying to walk back previous comments he had made, including criticisms public schools and teachers.
Meanwhile, Wolf heavily outraised him, with help from labor unions that Wagner had made the target of some of his sharpest criticisms.
Wolf, 69, ran his family’s building products company for most of three decades before becoming governor in 2015, except for a short stint as Pennsylvania’s revenue secretary.
He has been a champion for liberal causes, including imposing an effective moratorium on the death penalty, defending Pennsylvania’s expansion of Medicaid under the 2010 federal health care law known as “Obamacare” and blocking legislation that would have curtailed abortion rights.
Joining Wolf as lieutenant governor will be John Fetterman, the Braddock mayor whose efforts to improve the impoverished town over the past 13 years drew national attention and made him a media darling. Fetterman beat sitting Lt. Gov. Mike Stack in a five-way Democratic primary in May.
