Tens of Thousands of Dems Leave Party in Pennsylvania, Switch to Republican

The Pennsylvania Republican Party has picked up 243,139 new voters since the November 2015 election—and of these new voters, nearly 100,000 of them switched from the Democratic Party.

The state Republican party says that the surge in Republican registrations is nearly twice the number of newly registered Republicans compared to both the 2008 and 2012 numbers combined.

The party says the new numbers come from the Pennsylvania Department of State which shows that 97,607 Democrats have actually switched to Republican.

Numbers also show that 38,020 Republicans actually switched to Democrats.

“Enthusiasm is clearly on the side of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania this year,” Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Rob Gleason said, reports CBS Pittsburgh. “Republicans are making historic gains in voter registration in the Keystone State. As the last-minute registrations are processed, we’re confident we will see our Party grow even larger.”