Upper Darby GOP prepares for the next election cycle

The Upper Darby GOP welcomed its new leaders Saturday morning at a breakfast at Station Tap in Drexel Hill. 

Nick Voight, the chairman of the Upper Darby Republican Leadership Committee, said they want to gear up for the 2027 local election, adding volunteers and gathering data.

“We need you involved to share your thoughts. We don’t have all the answers, but if we have the right people at the table, we can figure it out,” said Voight, who lives in Westbrook Park with his wife, Gloria, and teenage son, Nick Jr. 

“We have a lot of smart people in this room,” said Voight, who works in development for a nonprofit. “I think we have good people in this room.” 

“It’s a different world than it was ten years, 20 years ago,” Voight added. “We’ve got to move on. We have to be prepared.”

They need people to hand out candidate information and to knock on doors for candidates. 

They must also improve relationships in the community and within the party, he added. 

He called for a “united front” and working together. 

“It’s going to come down to having the right candidates and a good turnout,” he said. 

“And fundraising.”

“If you look at social media, a lot of people say, ‘I didn’t know the EIT (Earned Income Tax recently passed by the Upper Darby Council) was going to affect me.’”

Most people are going to work, taking their kids to sports, and doing things around their house.

“They’re not going to watch a four-hour council meeting,” said Voight. “They’re not going to do it.”

“We’re not going to hit a grand slam with nobody on base. It’s not going to happen,” he said. “We want to work with everybody. We have to work together.”

Delaware County Republican Chairman Frank Agovino stopped by.

“It’s such an important town,” he said of Upper Darby, which has about 86,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census. 

“We had been making modest gains, but the last election was so bad that people started doubting again,” he said. “We’d started making progress then, along came November, and we got whacked.”

Democrats now hold all six seats on the Upper Darby Council. As of Jan. 19, Delaware County had 201,404 Democrats, 144,339 Republicans, and 63,816 independent and minor party voters, according to state figures. All five county council members are Democrats. In Upper Darby, about 60 percent of the voters are Democrats, 30 percent Republicans, and 10 percent other. 

“I had lunch not too long ago with [Senator] Dave McCormick, who won by 15,000 votes (in 2024) across the state,” said Agovino. “And Delaware County delivered 42 percent at that time, which was important for Dave to be a U.S. senator. It seemed like there was progress, and then we went back. But we shouldn’t be discouraged.”

“The reality is, all politics are national,” he said. “We used to say, all politics are local. And they are. The proof is in the pudding. [Delaware County] property taxes are up 50 percent in three years. There’s no end in sight. You have the new chairman [Richard Womack], who hasn’t paid his own property tax. 

“The group (county council) is incompetent,” said Agovino. “But they do have balls of steel…They lie, and this is what we’re up against.”

“We’re afraid the county is going to be in receivership in two or three years, and when that happens, forget about it. It becomes a flight from this county, and it becomes worse than North Philly.” 

“This stuff that’s happening to us locally, you see it more in Upper Darby than in a lot of other towns,” said Agovino. “In the old days, five or ten years ago, if your property taxes went up five percent, six percent, they’re done. Throw the bums out!”

“So, what can we do? We just need to worry about ourselves. The bottom line, adding more committee people, which we’ve done across the county,” said Agovino. “We’ve added over 100 committee people. More grassroots stuff. Engaging people…So, when that day comes, we can pounce.”

The county GOP will support the local Republican organizations, he said. And they’re investing in digital media. 

“That’s where we need to talk to people now,” he said. “It’s still about rebuilding this brand.”

The local and national Democrats call the Republicans “crazy,” to “gin up” their base, he said. 

While the Republicans had a good turnout in 2025, “theirs was better.” 

The statewide judicial elections and the issue of abortion “killed us here in the trenches.”

Linda Stein is a Philadelphia-area journalist.