Gov. Josh Shapiro endorsed Bucks County Clerk of Courts Eileen Hartnett Albillar on Monday, Sept. 28, in her bid to unseat Republican Sen. Frank Farry. The 6th Senate District covers much of Bucks County, including the Doylestown area, and the general election is five weeks away.
The endorsement, first reported by The Center Square, was part of a broader push in which Shapiro backed four Democratic challengers to Republican state Senate incumbents. All four targeted Republicans are committee chairs. Farry chairs the Senate's Institutional Sustainability & Innovation Committee.
Shapiro said Democrats have "a real opportunity" to expand their House majority and "flip control of the state Senate for the first time in decades." Republicans have held the Senate majority since 1978, with a brief interruption in 1993.
Democrats need to flip three seats to take control. Republicans hold a 27-23 edge in the Senate. Democrats control the House 103-100.
A tossup in Bucks County
A State Navigate poll of 1,822 likely voters conducted July 31 through Aug. 3 found Albillar leading Farry 46% to 45%, a gap well within the poll's 2.3-point margin of error.
That same poll found Shapiro carrying the district by 25 points, suggesting significant ticket-splitting. Farry won the seat in 2022 with 53.2% of the vote, beating Democrat Ann Marie Mitchell by about 10,000 votes, according to Ballotpedia.
The candidates
Albillar, 52, grew up in Warminster Township and lives in Warrington Township. She has held the clerk of courts post since January 2024 and previously served on the Warrington Township Board of Supervisors from 2018 to 2023. A licensed social worker, she told WHYY on Sept. 4 that her nearly 30 years working with low-income families and seniors motivates her run.
Farry, 53, lives in Langhorne. He has served as a volunteer firefighter for more than three decades and as fire chief for the Langhorne-Middletown Fire Company for 26 years. He won a state House seat in 2008 before moving to the Senate in 2022.
The race has also turned on surveillance policy. Albillar called on Farry to drop his co-sponsorship of Senate Bill 933 (SB 933), which would expand automated license plate readers on Pennsylvania roadways, the Bucks County Beacon reported.
Matt Laux, press secretary for the Republican State Leadership Committee, said Shapiro's endorsements show "Democrats are willing to spend whatever it takes to seize full control of Harrisburg."
No public response from Farry's office regarding the endorsement appeared in available records as of publication.
The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
