Paul Kengor: Yes, your vote really does count

I remember a column years ago by a writer arguing that your vote doesn’t count. A curmudgeon who enjoyed tweaking readers, he took on the sacred civics aphorism: “Your vote counts.” He insisted that, in fact, your single vote really doesn’t count, except for the rarest occasions where a one-vote difference decides an election, and that virtually never happens, certainly at the national level.

As much as it pained a political science professor to admit it, he was right.

Of course, if everyone thought that way, it would make a difference. If hundreds to thousands of backers of Candidate X took that approach, Candidate X would be doomed.

The lesson: You should vote. Regardless of whether your single vote flips an election result.

I say this as background to two remarkable races in our area.

The first is the Republican primary vote for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat. Dr. Mehmet Oz’s lead over David McCormick is 0.1%, by about 900 votes among 840,000 cast between them.

This means that if you voted for Oz rather than stay at home, well, your vote certainly counted. Conversely, if you didn’t show for your guy McCormick, then you cost him a crucial vote, especially if there were a thousand like you.

The other race is the Democratic primary battle for the seat vacated by Congressman Mike Doyle, the longtime representative from the Pittsburgh area. Whoever wins the Democratic primary effectively wins that seat.

Knowing that, the seat was targeted by the Justice Democrats and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the self- described “largest socialist organization in the United States.” These two groups since 2016 have honed a model to run DSA candidates in safe Democratic districts against traditional Democrats. This was how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) got elected in New York’s 14th Congressional District. It was how Summer Lee won her Pennsylvania House seat in 2018 against longtime incumbent Paul Costa. Once the traditional Democrat is defeated, the ultra-left Democrat secures the seat with effectively no competitive Republican opposition in November.

I’ve written about this for several years now, as I follow the DSA carefully. Justice Democrats co-founder Cenk Uygur candidly stated his group’s plan: “What we need to do is take over the Democratic Party. We’re going to primary all of them — all vulnerable Democrats.” He states of their DSA-backed candidates: “We want hundreds — we want to replace Congress.” Uygar says that if they can get into Congress a few dozen AOCs or Ilhan Omars “people will freak the hell out.”

Thus, the Justice Democrats targeted the Doyle seat, with Summer Lee their candidate.

This very much upset moderate Democrats, especially Jewish voters concerned about Lee’s position on Israel. At the last minute, they rallied around local Democrat businessman Steve Irwin, including Mike Doyle with an endorsement (Lee was endorsed by Bernie Sanders and “Squad” members Ocasio-Cortez and Omar). Concerned moderate Democrats urged Republicans to switch party affiliations to vote for Irwin.

In mere weeks, Irwin almost completely erased Lee’s lead, though not by enough. Out of more than 110,000 votes cast, Lee has prevailed by about 700.

In the vote for Pennsylvania Congressional District 12, your vote mattered.

If you think your vote doesn’t count, think again. This Pennsylvania primary proved it big time.