Pennsylvania Senate District 36: Malone (D) v. Jones (R)

Number	What it is	Source
Republican +15	2024 presidential margin of Donald Trump (R) in the district	Hesitation Media analysis of precinct returns
526 votes	Margin of Malone (D) in the March 25, 2025, special election	Pennsylvania Department of State
Democrat +0.3	2022 margin of Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) in the district	Hesitation Media analysis of precinct returns
More than 41,000	Republicans’ voter registration edge	Spotlight PA

Sen. James Malone (D) won the 36th District in a March 2025 special election, 27,034 votes to 26,508. Donald Trump (R) had carried the district by 15 points nearly five months earlier, and in 2022 the Republican candidate ran without a Democratic opponent.

The district lies entirely in Lancaster County, and registered Republicans there outnumber registered Democrats by more than 41,000, Spotlight PA reported.

Democrats hold 13 of the 25 Senate seats on the ballot, this one among them, and need to win 16 for a majority, so losing it would mean flipping all four of the Republican-held seats they have targeted.

The candidates

Malone is a software developer and a former part-time mayor of East Petersburg who has opposed data center development, according to Spotlight PA.

Rep. Tom Jones (R) has been a state representative since 2022, in the 98th District. The same Spotlight PA report describes him as a former township supervisor who owns a landscaping business, belongs to the House Freedom Caucus and supports school vouchers. His House seat is open this year.

Spending and the Yass ad

Spotlight PA, in its review of committee spending through Oct. 19, described heavy spending for Malone by the Senate Democrats’ campaign committee and significant spending for Jones by the Senate Republicans’ campaign committee, but it gave no figure for this race.

Spotlight PA reported that a Malone ad accused Jones of taking money from a Philadelphia billionaire, whom Malone identified as Jeff Yass. Jones’ committee reported a $500 contribution in 2023 from the Commonwealth Leaders Fund, a group Spotlight PA said Yass has heavily funded, and Jones said he did not take money from Yass.

The special election

Malone’s special-election margin, 1 point, was 16 points more Democratic than the district’s 2024 presidential vote and close to Shapiro’s 2022 margin for governor there. About 54,000 people voted in March 2025, against more than 154,000 in the district in 2024.

Results for the race are on the Pennsylvania legislature results page, and the method and sources are under How we did this.

How we did this

Margins are Democrat minus Republican, in points.

The 2024 presidential, 2024 U.S. Senate, 2022 governor and 2022 U.S. Senate margins are Hesitation Media’s sums of MIT Election Data and Science Lab precinct returns, with each precinct assigned to the Senate district it voted in for the 2022 State Senate race.

Passage	Figures	Source
Margins (chart, key numbers, body)	gov. D+0.28; U.S. Senate 2022 R+13.32; pres. R+15.33 (Harris 64,771, Trump 88,510, others 1,562); U.S. Senate 2024 R+14.83	MIT Election Data and Science Lab precinct returns, 2022 and 2024; Hesitation Media’s sums, swingdesk/pa_districts.py
Special election, March 25, 2025	Malone 27,034, Parsons 26,508, Moore (L) 483	Pennsylvania Department of State, https://www.electionreturns.pa.gov/ (election 109)
2022 general	Republican unopposed by a Democrat	Pennsylvania Department of State
Candidates, registration, ad, Yass, $500 contribution	more than 41,000	Spotlight PA, Sept. 21, 2026, https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2026/09/james-malone-tom-jones-lancaster-pennsylvania-senate-democratic-trifecta-elections/
Jones’ House district; seat open	District 98	Pennsylvania Department of State, https://www.electionreturns.pa.gov/ (2024 and 2026 House candidates)
Committee spending		Spotlight PA, Oct. 30, 2026, https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2026/10/campaign-finance-pennsylvania-legislature-2026-election-transparency-elections/