Republican Sen. Pat Toomey announced Monday that he would not seek re-election in 2022 or run for governor of Pennsylvania that year, a development that will have a massive impact on what will be two of the most important races of the next election cycle.
Toomey had said during his 2016 re-election campaign that this would “likely” be his last term in the Senate, but he didn’t seem to be ready to leave elected office. Back in April, The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, “One of the worst-kept secrets in Pennsylvania politics is that Sen. Pat Toomey is considering a run for governor in 2022.” Local politicos were therefore caught off-guard on Sunday when the paper reported that Toomey would sit out both contests, a decision that the senator confirmed the following day.
Toomey’s retirement will end his long career in this swing state. After years working in investment banking and running a chair of sports bars and nightclubs in the Lehigh Valley, the Republican got his start in local politics in 1994 when he was elected to Allentown’s Government Study Commission. Toomey wrote a new city charter that required a supermajority of the City Council to approve new tax increases, and he successfully campaigned for voters to approve it in 1996.
Toomey got his chance to run for Congress two years later when Democratic Rep. Paul McHale, who had called for Bill Clinton to resign over his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, retired from what was then numbered the 15th Congressional District. Toomey faced a competitive primary that included 1996 nominee Bob Kilbanks and state Sen. Joseph Uliana, and he stood out by emphasizing his support for term limits and abolishing the IRS.
Both of Toomey’s main rivals also caught some bad breaks: Uliana was hit with $150,000 in spending from a pro-term limits group, while Kilbanks griped that a key anti-abortion group backed Uliana instead of him. Ultimately, Toomey beat Kilbanks 27-25—a margin of 715 votes—while Uliana finished just behind with 23%.
That fall, Toomey decisively outspent Democratic state Sen. Roy Afflerbach and beat him by a wide 55-45 margin. Toomey won re-election in 2000 by a smaller 53-47 against local United Steelworkers leader Ed O'Brien as Al Gore was narrowly winning the district, and he easily prevailed their rematch two years later after the GOP-led state government redrew the congressional map.
Toomey, who had pledged during his first campaign to serve just three terms in the House, gave up his seat in 2004 to challenge moderate Republican Sen. Arlen Specter for renomination. Toomey cast the race as an ideological battle, declaring, “I represent the Republican wing of the Republican Party,” while “Arlen Specter represents the Ted Kennedy wing.”
The Bush White House, though, feared that Toomey could cost the GOP this seat in the fall if he won the nomination, and it rallied behind Specter. Ultimately, the incumbent held off Toomey by a narrow 51-49, and Specter went on to decisively win that year’s general election.
Toomey soon took over as head of the far-right anti-tax Club for Growth, but he wasn’t done campaigning for office himself. Toomey showed some early interest in running for governor in 2009, and he even initially announced that he would not challenge Specter again. However, after the senator voted for the Obama administration’s stimulus package, Toomey switched course and launched a second primary campaign against Specter.
Specter, though, soon surprised the political world by announcing that he was switching parties and running for re-election as a Democrat. Plenty of Republicans feared that Toomey was too ideological to beat Specter in 2010, and they unsuccessfully tried to recruit former Gov. Tom Ridge to run. Ultimately, though, Toomey had no serious intra-party opposition, while Specter went on to lose his Democratic primary to Rep. Joe Sestak.
2010 was a horrible year for Democrats nationwide, and Toomey spent months with a clear lead over Sestak. The congressman made up ground late in the campaign, but Toomey won 51-49.
Toomey worked hard during his first term to shed his far-right image, most notably by joining with West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on a high-profile gun-safety bill that failed to pass. Toomey, though, still voted with his party on key issues, and Democrats worked hard to beat him in 2016.
Toomey’s opponent was Katie McGinty, who had resigned as Gov. Tom Wolf’s chief of staff to run and had defeated Sestak in the primary. Most polls showed McGinty leading heading into Election Day, but Toomey prevailed 49-47 as Donald Trump was unexpectedly winning the Key Stone State. McGinty had outperformed Hillary Clinton in several rural areas, but Toomey made up for it by outpacing Trump in the Philadelphia suburbs.
While Toomey had only announced an hour before the polls closed on election night that he was even voting for Trump, he quickly established himself as an ardent White House ally during what would be his final term in Congress.
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