The Liberal Party USA appears positioned to gain recognized political party status in Pennsylvania after its candidate for Superior Court, Daniel Wassmer, surpassed the vote threshold required under state election law.
Under Pennsylvania’s Election Code, a political group becomes a recognized political party if one of its candidates receives at least two percent of the largest entire vote cast statewide for any elected candidate and does so in at least ten counties. A recognized party whose voter registration remains below 15% of the statewide total is classified as a minor political party.
Independent Political Report is unable to determine whether the Pennsylvania Department of State counts retention-election totals toward that benchmark. Recent unofficial returns show that Justice Christine Donohue received the highest total with 2,197,763 “yes” votes in her Supreme Court retention race. Barring that, Democrat Stella Tsai received 2,043,724 votes in her Commonwealth Court election, putting the necessary statewide total somewhere between 40,000 and 44,000 votes.
Wassmer, the Liberal Party’s sole candidate on the statewide ballot, ran in a three-way race for Superior Court on November 4 against Democrat Brandon Neuman and Republican Maria Battista, with the same uncertified returns showing he earned 70,464 votes. Based on those figures, he cleared the statewide requirement, with local results showing he also easily exceeded the threshold in multiple counties, including Allegheny, York, Erie, Cumberland, and Westmoreland. Final recognition still depends on certification by the Department of State.
If approved, the party’s new status would grant limited privileges in future elections, including appearing as an option on voter registration forms and allowing its nominees to be automatically placed on the ballot in special elections without circulating new petitions. However, unlike major parties, recognized minor parties in Pennsylvania do not hold publicly-funded primaries, and their candidates must still file nomination papers to appear on the general election ballot.
Wassmer is the Liberal Party USA’s first statewide candidate in Pennsylvania, though the organization’s predecessor, the Keystone Party, ran several such candidates in 2022, including Wassmer for U.S. Senate and Joe Soloski for governor with Nicole Shultz as his running mate. Wassmer that year finished with 26,428 votes, or 0.49% of the statewide total, falling short of recognition.
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