MEMORANDUM
To: Interested Parties
From: Sacha Haworth
Re: Taking on Big Tech in the 2025 PA Supreme Court Election
Date: Nov. 5, 2025
Three Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices, Christine Donohue (D), Kevin M. Dougherty (D), and David N. Wecht (D), prevailed in retention elections on November 4, 2025. Historically, Pennsylvania justices have often won retention elections with around two-thirds of the vote. Only one justice has lost a retention election since Pennsylvania first adopted them in 1968.
However, this year, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court retention race became a referendum on billionaire influence, with Democrats successfully framing part-TikTok-owner Jeffrey Yass’s spending as part of the MAGA/Big Tech oligarchy threatening ordinary Pennsylvanians. While Yass’s immediate motivation was the court’s 2018 gerrymandering ruling that cost Republicans congressional seats, Democrats connected his intervention to broader concerns about tech billionaires buying up political systems.
The data center issue provided crucial context. With 77% of Pennsylvanians supporting laws to hold Big Tech accountable for data centers’ energy and environmental impacts, and Amazon announcing $20 billion in PA data center investments, Democrats portrayed Yass as representative of a tech-aligned billionaire class that profits while residents pay higher bills. The Pennsylvania Working Families Party’s ‘Vote Yes, not Yass’ protest outside his trading firm made the connection explicit.
Key moments
- Calling out Big Tech influence-peddling: Pennsylvania Democratic Party chair Eugene DePasquale condemned “MAGA billionaires” for funneling money into the election.
- Protesting billionaire tech moguls: The Pennsylvania Working Families Party organized a September protest outside Susquehanna International Group, a trading company founded by Jeff Yass, urging locals to “Vote ‘Yes’, not Yass.”
Key polling
- PPP/Tech Oversight Project Survey: Overwhelming Majority of Pennsylvania Voters Want Politicians to Do More to Take on Big Tech
- 77% of Pennsylvanians say they would support a law holding Big Tech companies accountable for the increased energy usage and environmental harm caused by massive data centers in PA.
Read more
This Republican Mega-Donor Is Changing Local Elections In Pennsylvania (NOTUS, 11/3/25)
Pennsylvania’s richest man has poured millions into campaigns up and down the state’s ballot, transforming typically sleepy elections into competitive races … “This really reflects a broader wild, wild west of campaign finance reform, or the lack thereof … Jeffrey Yass, with his checkbook, has made the entire Pennsylvania Republican Party a plaything of his agenda.”
Data centers hot topic in Archbald, Valley View races (Scranton Times-Tribune, 10/26/25)
Data centers dominated politics and news in the Midvalley throughout 2025 as elected officials grappled with the new industry looking to reshape the local landscape, and next month’s elections are no different.
Pa. Democrats decry Jeffrey Yass spending in judicial races, compare him to Elon Musk (WHYY, 9/26/25)
About 50 progressive activists gathered outside the workplace of Pennsylvania’s richest man on Thursday to sound the alarm about his financial support for the Republican Party’s efforts to oust three state Supreme Court justices. The protesters’ message was clear: Billionaire Jeffrey Yass is Pennsylvania’s very own Elon Musk, a fabulously wealthy powerbroker attempting to use his fortune to reshape democracy.
