Tom Wolf wins in Pennsylvania as Democrats take back governorship from Republicans

An impor­tant guber­na­to­r­i­al race is now being called in Penn­syl­va­nia for the Democ­rats. Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger Tom Wolf is the pro­ject­ed win­ner, defeat­ing incum­bent Repub­li­can Tom Corbett.

Very few bal­lots have been tab­u­lat­ed and report­ed so far, but appar­ent­ly Wolf’s mar­gin of vic­to­ry is sig­nif­i­cant enough that mass media feel com­fort­able call­ing it.

Polling showed that Wolf was ahead by dou­ble dig­it mar­gins through­out the race. Cor­bett is the first incum­bent Penn­syl­va­nia gov­er­nor to lose reelec­tion in decades.

Wolf, who has nev­er held office, will become the Com­mon­wealth’s forty-sev­enth gov­er­nor. He spent over $10 mil­lion of his own mon­ey get­ting through PA’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic pri­ma­ry, and then end­ed up cruis­ing to vic­to­ry over Corbett.

Wolf post­ed a mes­sage of thanks to his sup­port­ers pri­or to tak­ing the stage at his elec­tion night par­ty in York. Here’s what he sent out:

I’m about to go on stage in my home­town of York, but I want­ed to thank you first. As I trav­elled all across Penn­syl­va­nia dur­ing this cam­paign, I was amazed at the ded­i­ca­tion, ener­gy, and enthu­si­asm put forth by sup­port­ers like you to encour­age oth­ers to par­tic­i­pate in our democ­ra­cy. You made this cam­paign about more than elect­ing me — you made it about peo­ple com­ing togeth­er to improve our schools, our neigh­bor­hoods, and our state.

Through­out my life, I’ve found that the only way to get things done right is to lis­ten, to treat peo­ple fair­ly, and to include every­one in the process. It’s that kind of col­lab­o­ra­tion that allowed me to turn my for­mer busi­ness around, and it’s the approach we need to take to bring about the bright future this great com­mon­wealth deserves.

Gov­er­nor Tom Cor­bett, Lt. Gov­er­nor Jim Caw­ley, and their many sup­port­ers deserve our respect and admi­ra­tion for run­ning a cam­paign focused on the issues. While we may dis­agree on ide­ol­o­gy, we all agree that Penn­syl­va­ni­a’s best days are ahead of us.

I hope you keep your pas­sion for Penn­syl­va­nia alive by con­tin­u­ing to con­nect with res­i­dents all across our com­mon­wealth. In the days and weeks ahead, I urge you to reach out to your neigh­bors — espe­cial­ly those who did­n’t sup­port this cam­paign — and ask them what you can do togeth­er to improve your community.

The con­ver­sa­tions you have may sur­prise you.

If we’re going to fund a world-class pub­lic edu­ca­tion sys­tem, cre­ate fam­i­ly-sus­tain­ing jobs, bring about fair­ness and equal­i­ty under the law, pro­vide access to afford­able health care, build safe com­mu­ni­ties, and keep Penn­syl­va­nia beau­ti­ful, it’s going to take all of us doing our part.

Democ­ra­cy requires healthy debates, but our duty to Penn­syl­va­nia requires that we lis­ten, that we roll up our sleeves, and that we come togeth­er to do what is right.

As your gov­er­nor, I’ll be there work­ing with you — and I can’t wait to see what we do togeth­er to help give Penn­syl­va­nia a fresh start.

Wolf will like­ly be tak­ing office with a Leg­is­la­ture con­trolled by the Repub­li­can Party.