Republicans hold just two seats on Allegheny County’s 15-member County Council, and could soon face an unusual challenge this fall in holding on to one of them — the countywide at-large seat the party has been all but guaranteed of for the past quarter-century.
If he wins his bid for that seat this fall, Alex Rose would, by any other name, still be a Democrat. But Rose hopes to win the seat by taking advantage of some unique circumstances this year — and by running as an independent instead.
“Council has done a lot of good work in the past,” said Rose, a first-time candidate who has volunteered for Democrats such as Governor Josh Shapiro and is currently working on the campaign of Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge candidate Matt Rudzki. “But I think new energy is really going to push things forward.”
If he can get on the ballot, Rose would be facing Mike Embrescia, a technology executive from Mt. Lebanon.
Embrescia was named to the seat on an interim basis earlier this year after its long-time occupant, Republican Sam DeMarco, left to work for U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick. Embrescia, who ran unsuccessfully for council in 2023, must win in November to hold the seat for the final two years of DeMarco’s term.
Until last week, that seemed like a foregone conclusion: Embrescia faces no GOP rival, and traditionally Democrats and Republicans have split the two at-large seats between them.
That’s because under the county code, the at-large seats are typically both on the ballot at the same time. The code says “[a]ny political party or body shall be entitled to nominate one candidate” for the post. With each party limited to one candidate for two slots, the almost inevitable result has been that Democrats and Republicans each get a seat.
This year’s special election, however, means there is only one seat up for grabs. And many Democrats are spoiling for a fight after the 2024 elections returned Trump to power. With midterm elections still a year-and-a-half away, they have punched above their weight in special elections already, scoring an upset in a state Senate race last month.
“What we need to do is push back against the insanity that’s coming out of Washington … while also moving our county forward with local issues,” Rose said.
Rose’s bid, which he has discussed on social media, is already ringing alarm bells among Republicans, who would be represented on council only by District 2 representative Suzanne Filiaggi if Rose prevails.
Last Wednesday, the Republican Committee of Allegheny County sent out a blast email headlined “Stop Alex Rose,” arguing that Democrats were trying to squeeze out GOP voices under false pretenses.
“This is an attempt by the ‘progressive left,’ socialist Democrats and Democrats to take over the Republican at-large spot on County Council,” warned RCAC chairman Jason Richey in the email. “Teams of radical Democrats posing as ‘non-partisan’ will be asking all voters (Democrat, Republican and Independent) to sign a petition to get Alex Rose on the ballot. Let everyone know, especially Republicans, that this is not a non-partisan effort. Rather, it is an attempt to cancel Republican participation in Allegheny County.”
Richey wrote that he believed the effort was “illegal and against the spirit of the law,” but did not elaborate when WESA spoke with him Friday.
"I have no comment at this time,” he said, “but the RCAC is investigating” the legal questions.
History suggests that council’s make-up was meant to assure some minority-party representation: Previously, the county was run by three commissioners, one of whom was guaranteed to be from a different party.
But the county code itself does not guarantee seats for Democrats or Republicans per se, and lawyers who spoke to WESA said they don’t see any immediate legal barrier to Rose’s candidacy.
The county says it doesn't have an objection either.
“Any minority party may field a candidate in the special election,” said county spokesperson Abigail Gardner, “and we will be administering the election under that advice with that direction in place."
A similar dynamic played out in Philadelphia, where in 2023 the progressive Working Families Party bested GOP candidates for two City Council seats reserved for non-Democrats.
Arguably a win by Rose would be a bit of payback for progressive Democrats: In 2023, their candidate for District Attorney, Matt Dugan, bested longtime incumbent Steve Zappala in the Democratic primary — only to see Zappala win in November as a Republican. GOP party leaders helped Zappala mount a write-in campaign during the Republican primary and secure a spot on the fall ballot.
Rose, at any rate, seems to relish the stir he is causing in the GOP. He posted a photograph of Richey's email in a wooden frame on social media last week, writing that Republicans would “pull every trick in the book to keep me from contesting this election. They are scared of facing the voters this year.”
Getting on the ballot will take effort. To run outside the two-party system, Rose must collect the signatures of 4,859 county voters between now and Aug. 1 to earn a spot. (The number is set by calculating 2% of the top vote-getter in the last countywide race, which was Corey O’Connor’s winning bid for county controller in 2023.)
“There’s going to be a lot of effort on my part to get out around the country, meet people, explain the situation that we’re looking at,” Rose said. But while the hill may be steep, he said, “it’s very possible to climb. I’m confident of success if I put in the elbow work and that’s what I’ll do.”
Rose acknowledges that Democrats already have the ability to chart the county’s course with little Republican opposition. In addition to their supermajority on council, and — setting Zappala’s case aside — the party holds the offices of county executive, controller, treasurer, and sheriff.
But Rose notes that the at-large seat had been held by Sam DeMarco, who preceded Richey as the GOP’s county chair. DeMarco was part of an “alternate” slate of electors ready to cast votes for Trump in the Electoral College if Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state had been overturned.
“There’s quite a lot of symbolism in using his seat to oppose what the Republican Party and Donald Trump are doing,” Rose said.
