The Republicans’ congressional effort to deny presidential results found an echo in the Pennsylvania Legislature on Tuesday, when Republicans voted not to run for a Democratic legislator elected in November and to remove the vice-governor, also a Democrat, from office. president of the State Senate.
On a typically ceremonial swearing-in day of members, the majority of the Pennsylvania Senate refused to elect Senator Jim Brewster, whose victory has just been officially certified, but is being challenged in court.
In a contentious and chaotic session, Republicans also voted to remove Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman as president of the Senate and replace him with the main Republican in the chamber.
The deputy governor at first refused to leave the platform, and for several minutes he and the Republican voted for him and tried to recognize the plenary motions. Eventually, Mr. Fetterman left.
“I was escorted out,” said Fetterman in an interview minutes later. “This was a corruption of the fundamental democratic franchise in our state.” He said Brewster’s victory in November was certified by the Commonwealth secretary and compared the actions of state Republicans to President Trump’s efforts to subvert the outcome of his dispute.
Brewster, who represented a region outside Pittsburgh for a decade, defeated Nicole Ziccarelli, a Republican, by 69 votes. She is challenging the results in federal court. At issue are several hundred mail notes that did not have a handwritten date on their outer envelopes. Ms. Ziccarelli lost a challenge in the state court.
Jake Corman, the provisional president of the State Senate and a Republican, told reporters on Monday that his party believed it would have to wait for the outcome of the lawsuit before filling the vacancy. “Our goal is to get it right, not fast,” he said.
But the Democrats characterized it as a blatant takeover. “This idea of having a party deciding who the real winner is is a dangerous precedent that we are seeing on the national scene,” said Fetterman.
Jennifer Kocher, a spokesman for Senate Republicans, accused Democrats of creating chaos. “Today, Senate order and decorum have been hijacked by Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman and members of the Senate Democratic bench, who have failed to comply with Senate rules,” she said.