News & Brews October 30, 2026
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Shapiro’s 2028 view
POLITICO continues the theme that Gov. Shapiro is “putting his coattails to the test,” hoping to flip Pennsylvania congressional and legislative seats blue with an eye toward 2028. He “is very much following the Ron DeSantis theory of a presidential primary campaign: demonstrate dominance at home before branching out nationally — a strategy, it should be noted, that didn’t pay off for the Florida governor.” Relatedly, POLITICO also had another story on Shapiro, eyeing his bipartisan appeal while ignoring his scandals (Hello, Mike Vereb).
‘Skill games fiasco’ leads to lost jobs
The Center Square reports that after the Legislature failed to meet a court-imposed deadline to come up with a solution on skill games, the now-illegal machines are disappearing from establishments across the commonwealth—and jobs with them. One company, for example, “had to pull thousands of its newly illegal machines from venues around the state and issue 60-day notices of termination to 81 employees.” Yet, lawmakers are finished doing anything legislatively substantial for the year, and depending on what happens in Tuesday’s elections, it’s still TBD how they will address the issue come January.
Bresnahan, Cognetti break from party positions
In yesterday’s debate in the highly-watched northeast Pa. race between incumbent GOP U.S. Rep. Bresnahan and Democrat challenger Paige Cognetti, both candidates sought to distance themselves from their party’s respective positions on key issues. Bresnahan, for example, “criticized President Donald Trump’s deal to purchase Russian oil and said the war in Iran ‘absolutely needs to end,’” the Inquirer reports. Cognetti, meanwhile, “backed voter ID and the GOP efforts to eliminate taxes on tips and overtime.” The race is one of four close congressional races in Pennsylvania that Democrats are eyeing as pickups in their attempts to retake the U.S. House majority.
What’s the post-Trump future of the GOP?
As Republicans brace for a blue wave, Trump’s approval rating plunges to new lows, and Democrats increasingly embrace socialism as a moral good, what happens to the Republican Party after Tuesday’s elections? Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, who has frequently criticized Trump, writes in the Wall Street Journal that she hopes there will be a decisive blue wave. Not because she in any way agrees with the Left’s socialist agenda, but because she hopes for a rebuilt, “healthy” Republican Party. “I believe a big, big wave is coming, and I see it as composed of many colors—blue voters predominantly, but indignant red voters too, and disappointed Trump-base voters, many staying home,” Noonan writes. “If it is a close election, there is no trauma for either side that forces it to change its nature.”
Philly is again poorest big city in U.S.
The Inquirer reports that per new Census Bureau data, “Philly has reclaimed its unwanted title of the poorest big city in the United States…. In 2025, 20.4% of Philadelphians lived in poverty, the percentage rising a year after the city’s poverty rate fell below 20% for the first time since at least 1979. The figure also marked Philadelphia’s first increase in the poverty rate since 2011.”
