LANCASTER — James Malone wasn’t expected to win in 2025.
The Democrat was running for a Pennsylvania Senate seat in a district that President Donald Trump won a few months prior by 15 percentage points. But in the end, he came out ahead by 526 votes.
This November, he’ll be on the ballot again, this time as an incumbent who Democrats are focused on protecting as they try to flip other Senate seats to take control of the chamber.
There’s at least one major difference this time around. Malone first ran in a special election, and low voter turnout — just 29% — played a major role in his success, experts say.
The math also doesn’t favor Malone. The 36th state Senate District, which includes small towns, rural farmland, and growing exurbs, has gotten bluer in recent years but remains very Republican. Registered GOP voters outnumber Democrats by more than 41,000 people.
Still, Democrats hope Malone can once again ride a blue wave as Trump’s popularity continues to fall. In the aftermath of Malone’s special election victory, analysts noted that Democratic eagerness to oppose the Trump administration at least partially propelled his win.
The race is also a test of the kind of candidate that the politically shifting Lancaster County district is ready to embrace.
Malone has emerged as a relatively moderate Democrat who sometimes votes across the aisle on issues like gun control and keeping trans athletes out of women’s sports. His opponent is Republican state Rep. Tom Jones, a right-wing member of his party who originally ran as an outsider firebrand opposed to abortion and efforts to restrict gun ownership.
This year, Jones has focused on advertising his more populist beliefs, like opposing unregulated data center development. Overlooking his more extreme views is likely a “play toward the center,” according to Elizabethtown College political scientist Fletcher McClellan.
“I don't think he needs to advertise his views. I think they're pretty well known within the district,” McClellan said of Jones. “What he needs to do is to, you know, persuade people that he's a reasonable fellow and that he'll represent everybody, not just an ideological extreme.”
Transcending party alliances
Malone is a former part-time mayor of East Petersburg, a software developer, and a longtime member of the Freemasons. He pitches himself as a harsh-on-data-centers everyman looking to cut costs and find bipartisan compromise.
His first campaign ad highlights his support for a state budget that created the Working Pennsylvanians Tax Credit, along with votes to raise funding for law enforcement and increase opportunities to hunt on Sundays. It also emphasizes his rural ties, showing him fishing and shooting a shotgun.
A Wyoming native with a quiet affect, Malone’s campaign materials describe a childhood in which his family “sometimes relied on hunting and fishing to get by.”
“When he and his brother were struggling at home as kids,” his campaign website reads, “a compassionate police officer stepped in to make sure they got the help they needed, which shaped James’s lifelong respect for first responders and his belief that government should be a force for good.”
Malone is widely seen as a team player on issues like passing a state budget and supporting a minimum wage increase, but he’s taken some votes that put him squarely among the most conservative members of his caucus.
On his very first day as a senator, Malone voted for a proposal to ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports (he abstained from voting when a similar bill came up this year). That vote angered some local advocacy groups who had supported his candidacy.
He also supported a bill that would make it easier to sue local governments that have rules restricting gun ownership. And after initially keeping in line with most of his party on the issue, he voted in favor of GOP-led legislation to address Pennsylvania’s unconstitutional sentencing scheme for second-degree murder.
No one mentioned those votes as he canvassed homes during a recent September weekend in Manheim Borough. Instead, several people raised affordability issues — rising housing costs, utility rates, and grocery bills.
Malone encouraged the voters he spoke with to disrupt the status quo by sending him back to the state Senate and helping Democrats secure a trifecta — meaning control of both legislative chambers and the governorship. He also asked every voter whether they needed information to request a mail ballot.
Malone told Spotlight PA his reelection bid comes down to a simple question: “Are our citizens willing to vote for people who are dedicated to them, or continue to do the same old, same old because of an old conception of party alliances?”
‘Hey, Tom’
When he was first elected to the state House in 2022, Jones was seen as an outsider.
He sought the seat of two-decade GOP incumbent David Hickernell, and defeated Hickernell’s handpicked replacement, who had the backing of some of the state’s most powerful Republicans.
Raised in Lancaster County, Jones was a township supervisor before his state House bid and led a landscaping business for decades. He’s an elder at his church who believes faith should be a big part of governing, a gun owner, and a reptile enthusiast — he keeps rescue alligators in an indoor pond at his landscaping headquarters.
In Harrisburg, he’s a member of the Freedom Caucus who wants low taxes and supports alternatives to public schools. He’s also a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment, and describes himself as committed to “the sanctity of life.” In his first bid for office, one of his key issues was supporting a six-week abortion ban.
Jones has backed legislation to require proof of citizenship to vote, publicly fund private school vouchers, force the state to turn over some social program recipients’ data to the federal government, and mandate parents’ consent before students have access to materials the school board deems sexually explicit. He has made a point of holding monthly town halls with his constituents.
Though he admits he’s one of the more right-leaning members of his caucus, he’s focusing on bipartisan issues in his run for state Senate, including cutting healthcare costs, creating jobs, and backing term limits for elected officials. He’s also highlighting the relationships he’s built with Democrats over the years as he talks with voters. As an example, Jones points to a bill that he sponsored with a Philadelphia Democrat to allow stores to donate food that is still safe to eat after its listed “best by” date. Shapiro signed it into law last year.
Walking the sidewalks of Columbia Borough on a September afternoon, it was clear he’s a recognizable face. Several drivers honked, waved, or shouted “Hey, Tom,” out their windows as they passed. The resident of the first door he knocked on happened to have gone to high school with Jones’ father.
That voter, a registered Republican, was mostly concerned with social issues. Among the first things he asked Jones was how many genders there are. Jones said there are two and added that he supports restricting athletes to teams that align with their assigned gender at birth.
“We need to protect our kids from hypersexualization and gender ideology,” Jones told the voter.
Jones said he isn’t worried about the potential for federal blowback to harm his campaign because, ultimately, the race will come down to the decision of Lancaster County voters.
The battle for Lancaster County
Who exactly is best suited to represent those voters is central to many of the ads in the campaign.
A recent attack ad from Jones’ campaign accuses Malone of “condemning Christian beliefs as ridiculously asinine and equating religion with superstition,” and disrespecting women.
“When radical James Malone says he doesn't belong in Lancaster County, believe him,” the ad says.
The claims are largely based on blog posts Malone wrote in 2006 and 2007. The posts, which were viewed by Spotlight PA, read like personal journal entries.
One details dynamics with his now-ex-wife, discussing challenges in their marriage and his respect for her; Jones’ campaign selectively quotes it to make the case that Malone doesn’t respect women.
In other posts, Malone discusses his faith and parenting, including notes about churches that had and continued to positively influence him. He writes in one about some family members’ embrace of “very negative renditions” of Pentecostalism and of “Neo-Puritan groups,” and includes links to pastors including Missouri-based Joe Griffin.
“Why do the members continue to push themselves farther into the muck the more ridiculously asinine and caustic the ‘doctrine’ becomes?” he wrote.
Jake Dupont, Malone’s campaign manager, said in a statement that the 20-year-old post condemns “an extremist group that said America deserved 9/11.” Dupont provided a link to a document published by Joe Griffin Media Ministries that called the attacks a “wake-up call” after “our citizens have gone astray.”
“If that’s what Tom Jones wants to talk about instead of a data center in our backyard, utility prices rising, and cutting taxes — well, then he’s even more out of touch than we realized,” Dupont said.
He also criticized Jones for being "weirdly obsessed” with Malone’s personal life, and for distracting voters from his own record.
Malone’s ads are comparatively tame. One points to the Republican's support for public school alternatives to argue that Jones is diverting money away from public education.
It also accuses Jones of receiving money from an unnamed “Philadelphia billionaire” — who Malone identified to Spotlight PA as Pennsylvania’s richest man and prominent Libertarian megadonor Jeffrey Yass.
Jones disputes receiving money from Yass. His campaign finance reports show that in 2023 his fundraising committee received a $500 contribution for “event space” from Commonwealth Leaders Fund, which Yass heavily funds.
Malone told Spotlight PA he thinks Jones uses his religious beliefs as a “shield over, you know, actual work.”
“It seems like he wants to prove that the old do-nothing model is effective, and that claiming that you have a faith in God is going to be more effective than proving what you're actually doing on the ground,” Malone said.
A group of Democratic constituents in Jones’ district criticized the Republican last year for offering a digital course about the founding of the United States that was taught by instructors identified by many religious and historic scholars as embracing Christian nationalist beliefs.
A race no one can take for granted
At the moment, it’s impossible to calculate how much money has been spent on the race — the most recent campaign finance reports were filed in June, and the next won’t be available until late October.
But a lot of money is expected to flow, since the race is seen as potentially critical to either securing the state Senate for Democrats or keeping it in Republican hands.
Those ramifications are a focal point of Jones’ candidacy to oust Malone. While door-knocking, he told Spotlight PA he’s framing the GOP’s ability to hold onto the Senate majority as “holding the line” against Democrats.
“I would be lying if I didn't say that it was a shock to the system,” Jones said of the special election upset last year. “But I think it was a good wake-up call for Republicans in Lancaster County that we can no longer take for granted that Lancaster County is a red county.”
This year’s “regularly scheduled” election differs significantly from last year’s special election, according to Franklin & Marshall College political scientist Stephen Medvic. Though Democrats will likely experience a boost at the polls based on the federal climate, he said voters pay more attention to midterms than they do “one-off” special elections, so it’s fair to assume more Republicans will also show up to the polls.
Medvic said the average shift nationwide in special elections since Trump won his second term in 2024 has been around 17% in favor of Democrats. “But that's, again, because those special elections are taking place in really unique circumstances,” he noted.
Philadelphia state Sen. Vincent Hughes, who chairs the chamber’s Democratic campaign arm, pointed to a separate special election in Western Pennsylvania in August — when a Democrat won a state House seat that Trump had carried by nearly 20 percentage points in 2024 — to argue for his party’s optimism surrounding Malone’s race.
Hughes did address the difficult reality that the 36th won’t be an easy race to win: “Math is math.”
Keeping Shapiro’s name in the 36th race could be advantageous for Malone because of the governor’s popularity and his name being at the top of the ballot this year, according to McClellan of Elizabethtown College.
He stressed the importance of the race for Democrats’ chances to achieve a trifecta.
“There's only a handful of really competitive races, and if the Democrats lose one of those, that makes the job that much tougher,” McClellan said.
Democrats are quick to point out that Shapiro narrowly won the district during his first gubernatorial run in 2022. Malone said he’s well aware of Shapiro’s clout among voters in the area: “There are a lot of people who have a really odd dynamic where they are both pro-Trump and pro-Shapiro, and you know it's just the reality of our community.”
With polls showing him with a double-digit lead in his own reelection campaign, Shapiro is putting both time and money into downballot races like Malone’s. He appeared alongside Malone in March to endorse him and filmed a video earlier this year to support the senator’s reelection.
“We have gotta win a trifecta,” Shapiro said, “and the only way we win that trifecta is by holding on to Malone.”
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