Agree to agree with GOP
The Washington County Democratic Party does not often agree with our friends from the Republican Party. However, the recent comments made by Dave Ball, current chairman of the Washington County Republican Party, and Sen. Pat Toomey regarding the primary race for United States senator from Pennsylvania have made me believe we have more in common than we originally thought.
As a quick reminder, seven people ran in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate a few weeks ago. When the votes were taken, David McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO, and Mehmet Oz, a celebrity talk-show doctor, were locked in a virtual electoral tie for the nomination in the days following the May 17 primary. During the campaign, both Republican candidates spent millions of dollars attacking each other on such issues as neither of them living in our state (Oz was recently living in New Jersey and McCormick in Connecticut) and both being out of touch with local working-class people (McCormick made $22 million in 2021 managing a hedge fund with ties to China and Oz’s estimated wealth is between $104 million to $422 million in assets, according to the Associated Press). Both candidates also went after former president Donald Trump’s endorsement, with Oz receiving that backing. Despite the ex-president’s support for Oz, the race between the two candidates was left undecided for almost three weeks after the election as counties finished up counting mail-in, military, and provisional ballots. Ultimately, McCormick conceded the race to Oz after initial results of a recount showed that the results would not swing in his favor.
Despite the fact that ballots were still being counted in the days immediately after the election, Trump urged Oz to simply declare victory, once again claiming a rigged election. Apparently, Trump’s baseless election fraud claims went too far for Ball and Toomey, since this time they were being used against a fellow Republican.
In an interview with the Washington Post a day after the former president’s comments, Ball said, “I’m flabbergasted. When somebody [Trump] who advocates that everybody needs to get their votes out and their opponents are cheating, and now he is talking about his own party?” Ball was further quoted as saying, “When the president says let’s cut it off here because I like the number here, so let’s stop. I don’t understand the point of making comments like that.”
Toomey said, “That’s not the least bit surprising, given his history and what we know about Donald Trump. It’s much to Mehmet Oz’s credit that he hasn’t adopted that rhetoric and seems to be adhering to what used to be the conventional view that all the legal ballots should be counted.” We agree completely with Toomey and Ball: All votes should be counted.
In 2019 when Act 77 was passed, which allows for no-excuse mail-in voting in Pennsylvania, it was approved unanimously by every Republican state senator and by a majority of the Republican members of the state House of Representatives in the General Assembly (including all of Washington County’s local Republican senators and representatives). The intent of the act was to provide more access and increase voter participation in our elections. With higher voter turnout since the passage of the legislation, millions of Pennsylvania voters – Republicans, Democrats, and Independents – have another option to have their voices heard.
We encourage everyone 18 years and older to register to vote and actively participate in our democracy through the voting process. Whether cast on Election Day, at the polls, or through the mail-in ballot process, these votes should be counted accurately, transparently, and in accordance with the laws passed by our legislators regardless of how long it may take. That is something we can all agree on.
Christina Proctor is chair of the Washington County Democratic Committee.