Lancaster County Republican legislators are preaching civility and cooperation among fellow party members in the upcoming May primary and in the new Pennsylvania legislature session ready to restart this month.
In a tweet from Feb. 7, Sen. Ryan Aument (R-36) wrote that “Pennsylvanians expect and deserve real results, not partisan bickering, in 2023.” In the message, Aument also included an image with a quote that says, “Focusing on policies where we agree, working across the aisle, and seeking consensus where we can will be necessary if we want to produce real results for Pennsylvanians.”
The message comes on the heels of the contentious battle in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives over the election of Speaker of the House as the Republicans held a slim 101-99 majority at the start of the new session in January. A total of 16 House Republicans, including former speaker and Lancaster County Rep. Bryan Cutler, joining with all the Democrats to elect Rep. Mark Rozzi (D-126) as the new Speaker of the House.
Democrats officially won back control of the House on Feb. 7 with special election victories of three seats in Allegheny County, giving them a 102-101 total. The House was scheduled to return to session on Feb. 21.
Aument’s public comment on social media was not the only statement he made recently regarding decorum in state politics.
At the Jan. 27 Warwick Area Republican Committee winter dinner at the Tied House in Lititz, Aument addressed the record crowd of 138 people in attendance, saying Republicans must unite if they are to compete and win elections in 2023 and 2024.
“This party must embrace competency, decency, virtue, humility, civility, and step away and reject division, false labels, whether those divisions are patriots versus establishment, Lancaster County Republicans versus Harrisburg Republicans, conservatives versus real conservatives, fiscal conservatives versus social conservatives,” Aument said at the dinner.
Aument said he believes Republicans at the top of the ticket in the 2022 General Election lost in part because “some were focused far more on waging political combat against our fellow Republicans than running aggressive campaigns to defeat Democrats.”
Some party members across the state criticized a lack of open Republican support for the candidacy of Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-33) as the party’s nominee for governor against Josh Shapiro and Dr. Mehmet Oz’s candidacy against John Fetterman for the U.S. Senate seat.
Several Republican legislators were seen at Shapiro’s gubernatorial inauguration gala held at Rock Lititz on Jan. 17.
Aument himself faced competition within the Republican primary last May when Ephrata businessman Mike Miller challenged him. Aument won the election with 60% of the vote, but Miller continues to challenge the County of Lancaster in court to examine ballots from the primary election.
The fallout from the factious Aument vs. Miller primary led to Republican leadership punishing party members for perceived disloyalty, including Lancaster County Rep. Dave Zimmerman (R-99) being removed from three legislative committees in the House. Zimmerman was accused of lending his support to Miller in the primary against Aument, although Zimmerman denied that he supported Miller or worked against Aument.
At the Warwick Republican dinner, Aument said the party needs to look at the results of the 2022 General Election, especially the eastern part of the state where few Republican House or Senate members remained in their positions. He said virtually every courthouse in the East were also lost to Democrat control.
Aument said a Democrat push is making its way into local elections and will become more aggressive in Lancaster County. He said in 2021, the Republican Committee of Lancaster County had to spend nearly $150,000 to hold on to school board races and win a majority of township commissioners in Manheim Township.
Aument said divisions among Republicans will keep the party from pushing its agenda forward, including school choice for students, supporting law enforcement, stemming the effects of inflation and building a robust economy.
“The issues and challenges we face are far bigger than our differences,” Aument said. “My hope is in 2023 that we will be the party that embraces competence, decency, civility and humility and be the party that offers big bold ideas to build a stronger, better community.”
More Voices
Aument wasn’t the only legislator at the Warwick Republican dinner to speak about party unity.
Rep. Mindy Fee (R-37) said she has heard from her constituents about the dysfunction going on in the House. Fee said a large piece of the dysfunction comes from the Republicans being in the House minority for the first time since 2010.
Fee said one of the reasons Republicans found themselves in a “predicament” is because they lost a seat held by Rep. Todd Stephens of Montgomery County. Stephens ultimately lost the General Election by 34 votes to Democrat Melissa Cerrato.
“Thirty-four votes, and we would have stayed in the majority,” Fee said. “But we had members that called him a RINO and many different names.”
Fee said one of the reasons she loves her district covering a large swath of northern Lancaster County is because it’s one of the most conservative seats in the state, allowing her to vote for “every conservative bill there is.” She said not every Republican member of the legislature has that luxury because they represent more politically diverse districts, bringing controversial votes into more scrutiny among voters.
Fee said Republicans “learned a valuable lesson” in the 2022 election and hopes the party will “start working in the same direction” to differentiate itself from Democrats. But she said she hopes voters won’t penalize other Republicans who don’t vote for every portion of a conservative agenda, or outcomes like the Stephens race will increase.
“I want the most Republican Republican to win that seat, because I want to be in the majority,” Fee said. “So my ask for people across the state is that we need to look inward. We as Republicans need to come together and understand not all Republicans are made the same.”
Staff writer Michael Yoder is an award-winning journalist who has been honored with several Keystone Press Awards for his investigative pieces.
