President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed the only way Republicans could lose last week's election is if his supporters stayed home. He urged people at more than one rally to pretend he was on the ballot.
Whether they did or did not is unknown, but, at least in Allegheny County, it does appear many stayed home.
Allegheny County'soverall voter turnout last week was down compared to in the 2018 midterms, held during Trump's first term. According to the county's election figures, 24,430 fewer ballots were cast in 2026, with turnout falling from 58% in 2018 to 56.3% this year.
But that decline was not evenly distributed between the two major parties.
In the 2018 Pennsylvania governor’s race, Democrat Tom Wolf received 364,710 votes in Allegheny County.
This year, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro received 369,127 votes, an increase of just 4,417 votes.
The Republican decline was considerably larger. Compared with the Republican gubernatorial vote in 2018, the GOP received 26,142 fewer votes in Allegheny County this year, a 15.5% decrease ― and very close to the overall drop in turnout.
Those local numbers came amid major Republican losses nationally. USA TODAYreported that Democrats captured both chambers of Congress in the 2026 midterms, making gains in traditionally Republican territory andflipping states and districts Trump carried in 2024.
The Allegheny County results point to a similar turnout problem. Democrats maintained, and slightly increased, their gubernatorial vote total compared with 2018. Republicans, meanwhile, brought significantly fewer voters to the polls.
This story was produced by reporter Gabby Sartori, [gsartori@usatodayco.com], with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the review, editing and publishing process. Learn more atcm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Did Allegheny County Republicans pretend Trump was on the ballot?
