Last weekend, Cumberland County state Sen. Greg Rothman was elected Chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania.

PoliticsPA talked with Rothman prior to his election about the position, why he was seeking the job, and what he hoped to do as chair.

The entire interview can be found on our YouTube page and is edited here for space.

PoliticsPA: “For those who don’t know your background could you just give us a little bit of background on yourself, what got you started in politics and what your thought process is for getting involved in this race.”

Rothman: “I got inspired by Ronald Reagan in 1980. I was 13 years old watching that election and became a teenage Republican. I went off to college in Massachusetts … was a young Republican when I got out of school … worked for Jack Kemp when he ran for president in 1988. I worked at the United States Senate for the steering committee … was an intern at the Pennsylvania Republican state committee and have worked on numerous campaigns.

When I got out of college I went to work for a family business – a real estate business – that I eventually became president of and helped grow it into a really strong company. In 1991, at the beginning of the the ground war phase of the Gulf War, I enlisted in the Marine Corps and spent 10 years in the Marine Corps Reserves. In 2012 I said I need to put my name on the ballot and ended up being elected to the State GOP committee and became a county chair. I would serve three terms and then I ran for the State House of Representatives in 2015 and served seven years until my seat was blown up in redistricting. I ran for the Senate and got elected so I had seven contested elections  I won over the course of seven years with a lot of Grassroots activism. Everything I’ve done has put me in a place where I could be the ideal State chairman to unite the party and build on the success of Donald Trump’s election and promote Trump’s America First agenda and turn Pennsylvania into a solidly red reliable state like Ohio.

PPA: When did you decide to run? What was your thought process? Was it the election of Donald Trump or Dave McCormick and say, yes, now’s my time?

Rothman. No. I had, in fact, I had no thoughts of it at all. I had plans to go into leadership in the Senate. I was going to run the Senate Republican Campaign Committee which I’d worked on the last cycle. I was approached by some people who said, what do you think of this? I know what my abilities are. I know what my passions are. So the question is, is this an opportunity for me to use those and the answer was yes. I started making calls and got a lot of support from a lot of people that have served with me in in the legislature or served with me in on campaigns over the last 40 years.

PPA. What does the PAGOP chairman do?

Rothman. There are 67 counties which means there are 67 County parties. I was a county chairman in Cumberland County. I will tell you that’s the hardest job in politics.

We have about 380 State committee members which include those 67 County chairs and they get together a few times a year to provide support for our counties. I mean the county parties are the ones that do the work. I liken it to there’s four legs on a chair and one of the legs is the volunteers and the activists. They may not be part of the party but they’re the ones that knock on the doors. That’s how you win elections. The people who are elected to serve as committee people. I was one of those when I was 22 years old and I was a state Committee Member too.

Then the donors. it’s important that we have the money and we don’t have the type of donors that the Democrats do. They outraised us about two to one in Pennsylvania. I like to raise money. I’m one of the rare elected officials who loves raising money because I was a donor too. I get it. I understand Republican donors are investors and they want to invest in ideas and people and plans to bring about a limited government and Republican principles.

And then the final leg of the stool is the candidates. Having recruited candidates … having worked for so many candidates over the years and having been one …  I think I’m in a unique position where I get all four of those. That’s how the Republican Party leads. It’s a resource for our County parties.

PPA. How do you build off the momentum of 2024?

Rothman. So I remember campaigns where we had a million and a half voter disadvantage and the good news is now that they’ve even cleaned up the active voter rolls, we’re down to 200,000. That’s a number one metric that we would have. How do we register voters? We have a model (and) his name is Scott Presler. He has just been phenomenal. I met Scott years ago when he first came to Pennsylvania registering voters, finding those people that ought to vote Republican. Whether they’re hunters or social conservatives or free market people going to gun shows and going to the farm show. Those are the people who aren’t registered to vote. We get them to register to vote. That’ll be one of my main priorities.

PPA. You mentioned fundraising. Investing in governor’s race and the fact that, in your words, that Democrats seem to have more “Big Ticket” donors. When it comes right down to that, how can you energize the grassroots in, let’s say, Huntingdon County and Erie County, maybe up in Carbon County

Rothman. “It’s about investing and a lot of times these donors are investing in candidates, not the party, because they don’t see the benefit to the party. I’m going to work with the candidates, work with the leadership in the legislature, work with our Congressional Delegation. Obviously work with Senator McCormick make sure that that the party has the resources. We can do things that candidates can’t do. We can bring people together and prepare a team that, when we do have the candidate for governor in 2026, we already have a a team in place that can help drive out the voters and get people elected in November so we can beat Josh Shapiro. That would be another priority of mine.

PPA. When you talk about Republicans, is it is one of your jobs making more of a big tent because I think traditional vs. MAGA GOP … you’ll still hear people say ‘are you a traditional Republican’ (or) ‘are you a MAGA Republican’? Is the tent big enough to to hold all?

Rothman.  Look, I support every one of Donald Trump’s policies. I have from the time he took office. But we also have people in the Republican party that aren’t as conservative as I am and when you’re a party chairman or when you’re trying to get 102 Republicans elected in the (state) house when I was HRCC chairman, you realize that there are parts of the state that we need a different type of candidate.

They don’t have to be to agree with me 100% of the time, and that’d be pretty boring anyway, so the party’s open to everybody. I think our policies and our principles are appealing to everybody and sometimes it’s just the tone. When I ran for the house and when I ran for the Senate, I knocked doors in every mobile home park in my district, and there are a lot of them. One woman said to me, ‘I’m 80 years old. I’ve never met a politician. Certainly none has ever showed up at my door.’ And I said, well I’m not a politician but I want your vote and she said no one’s ever asked me for my vote. Those are places that Republicans have to go. Legal immigrants who come to our country … we need to reach out to them. Also farmers and the Amish and those who may be cynical about politics. That their vote doesn’t make a difference. We need to go to all them and not just register them, but then get them out to vote. Everyone’s welcome on this team.

PPA: Newly elected Senator Dave McCormick said that you have the political savvy, you have the ability to connect create maintain relationships and offered you his endorsement for the position. What does that mean to you?

Rothman. I’m flattered and honored. I think Dave McCormick pulled out an incredible historic win. I mean we’ve been dealing with Bob Casey as long as I can remember. (He) did nothing for us … voted against our interests on a regular basis. I’m grateful for Dave McCormick … going to change the trajectory of Pennsylvania. We need a United States Senator who’s active in the party. Senator McCormick is interested in building the party. It’s his vision too that we can be a solidly red State. How great would it be if we could turn Pennsylvania into another Ohio or Florida when it comes to voting Republican.

PPA: There is talk that Democrats need to do more than bank on the “Blue Wall” (states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin) because of demographic changes. What kind of strategies do you have to be able to lessen the Democratic advantages, let’s say in Southeastern Pennsylvania or Allegheny County?

Rothman: When you look at between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, you have a pretty good thing going right now. So it’s peace and prosperity. We’re going to depend on President Trump and his administration to end these wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine and to push Russia back out of Ukraine. We’re going to look for peace through strength which has worked over and over again in the history of our country. I think ultimately people vote their pocketbooks and Joe Biden and the Democrats, with what they did the last four years, really shows the contrast between Republican principles and Democratic principles.

PPA: The Republican party of Pennsylvania had a pretty great year in 2024, winning the senate seat, did everything but win back to state house which remains a Democrat 102-101 majority. What kind of strategies would you like to employ to see the State House flip?

Rothman:  Not that there’s a correlation, but when I was chairman, we picked up three seats and won three special elections including K.C. Tomlinson down in your area. I racked my brain trying to figure out why we didn’t pick up at least one seat and I’ve come up with a couple conclusions. Number one, the Democrats outspent Republicans two-to-one. We need to have some parity in supporting our candidates financially which I will help to do. Number two, the map that was drawn was a total gerrymandered map. I know all about gerrymandering because they did it to me. The third reason is every incumbent in the House got reelected. The power of incumbency.

So what do we do to win back the PA House? We need to recruit great candidates. We need to make every seat in play. We need to spend the money and then we need to put up a contrast and I think people are going tosee this is what happens when you get Republicans in office.

Their economy is going to come back. Prices come down … inflation will be non-existent again and America will be a leader on the foreign scene too. Where people understand that there is peace through strength and we’re the strongest country in the world and the greatest country in the world. So I’m excited about that.

I look at my life experiences, my political experiences. I’ve learned from mistakes because certainly I’ve made plenty of them, but that if you think of that four-legged stool … that they’re all equally important and I understand that because I’ve been part of all four of those those legs and I think that will make me an outstanding chairman.

I don’t intend to do it by myself. I need everybody involved and whether they’re brand new Republicans that came in because of Donald Trump or they’ve been lifelong Republicans that have been toiling like I did for 40 years. They’re all welcome to this party.