State reference

How does government work in Pennsylvania?

Pennsylvania’s legislature, governor, courts, local governments and election offices, with a source for every fact.

Facts checked November 5, 2026. Anything we could not verify from a source is left out rather than guessed. Rules change, so confirm deadlines with the official election office.

253

State legislators

Legislature

4 years

Governor’s term

Governor

Counties

Local

Seats in the US House

Clerk of the House

Foundation: Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania source
In effect since: 1968 source

What may surprise you here

Pennsylvania voters cast a single vote for governor and lieutenant governor together, so the two always come from the same ticket. source
Judges, including Supreme Court justices, are first elected by voters, then later stand in yes-or-no retention votes without party labels. source
The attorney general is elected statewide and may not serve more than two successive terms. source

Legislature

Name: General Assembly source
Senate: seats: 50 source
Senate: term in years: 4 source
House of Representatives: seats: 203 source
House of Representatives: term in years: 2 source
Term limits: None source

Structure set by: Pa. Const. art. II, §§ 1, 3.

Governor and statewide offices

Term in years: 4 source
Term limit: Two consecutive terms source
Next regular election: 2030 source
Lieutenant governor: joint ticket source
Attorney general: elected source
Attorney general’s term in years: 4 source
Secretary of state: appointed by governor source

Courts

Highest court: Supreme Court source
Intermediate appeals court: Superior Court and Commonwealth Court source
Main trial court: Court of Common Pleas source
How high-court judges reach the bench: mixed: elected for a first term, then retention votes source

Local government

Called: county source
How many: 67 source
Cities and towns: Pennsylvania has 1,013 municipal governments (such as cities and boroughs) and 1,546 township governments, according to the Census Bureau’s 2022 count. source
Schools: All 514 of the state’s school systems are independent school districts, according to the Census Bureau’s 2022 count. source

Elections

Chief election official: Department of State source
Who runs elections locally: county election offices source
Primary type: closed source
Regular governor elections fall in: even source
Citizen initiatives: no source

Who holds these offices

As of November 5, 2026. Terms of the current Congress run to January 3, 2027. Winners of the November 3, 2026 elections are not shown until results are certified and they take office.

Governor: Josh Shapiro Democratic, in office since January 17, 2023. source

US senators for Pennsylvania
Senator	Party	Seat	Senator since	Current term ends
John Fetterman	Democratic	Class 3	January 3, 2023	January 3, 2029
David McCormick	Republican	Class 1	January 3, 2025	January 3, 2031

Members of the House for Pennsylvania
Seat	Member	Party	In the House since
District 1	Brian K. Fitzpatrick	Republican	January 3, 2017
District 2	Brendan F. Boyle	Democratic	January 6, 2015
District 3	Dwight Evans	Democratic	November 14, 2016
District 4	Madeleine Dean	Democratic	January 3, 2019
District 5	Mary Gay Scanlon	Democratic	November 13, 2018
District 6	Chrissy Houlahan	Democratic	January 3, 2019
District 7	Ryan Mackenzie	Republican	January 3, 2025
District 8	Robert P. Bresnahan, Jr.	Republican	January 3, 2025
District 9	Daniel Meuser	Republican	January 3, 2019
District 10	Scott Perry	Republican	January 3, 2013
District 11	Lloyd Smucker	Republican	January 3, 2017
District 12	Summer L. Lee	Democratic	January 3, 2023
District 13	John Joyce	Republican	January 3, 2019
District 14	Guy Reschenthaler	Republican	January 3, 2019
District 15	Glenn Thompson	Republican	January 6, 2009
District 16	Mike Kelly	Republican	January 5, 2011
District 17	Christopher R. Deluzio	Democratic	January 3, 2023

Boundaries for the 119th Congress, simplified from the Census Bureau cartographic boundary file. For an exact address, use the House lookup.

Who has held each Senate seat since 2001

Each band is one person in the seat. The line marks November 2026; anything to its right is the rest of a current term. Dates through 2026 come from the congress-legislators public dataset, whose current members are matched against the Senate’s own roster on every build.

Senate seat, Class 1