Eugene DePasquale | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chair of thePennsylvania Democratic Party | |
| Assumed office September 6, 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Sharif Street |
| 49thAuditor General of Pennsylvania | |
| In office January 15, 2013 – January 19, 2021 | |
| Governor | Tom Corbett Tom Wolf |
| Preceded by | Jack Wagner |
| Succeeded by | Timothy DeFoor |
| Member of thePennsylvania House of Representatives from the95th district | |
| In office January 2, 2007 – January 15, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Stephen Stetler |
| Succeeded by | Kevin Schreiber |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1971-08-03)August 3, 1971 (age 54) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | College of Wooster (BA) University of Pittsburgh (MPP) Widener University (JD) |
| Website | Campaign website |
Eugene A. DePasquale (born August 3, 1971) is an American lawyer andDemocratic politician who served as thePennsylvania Auditor General from 2013 to 2021. From 2007 to 2013, he served in thePennsylvania House of Representatives, representing theYork County-based95th district. He was the Democratic nominee forPennsylvania's 10th congressional district in the2020 election. Since leaving office, DePasquale served as an adjunct professor atWidener University School of Law,[1] and is currently an adjunct law professor at theUniversity of Pittsburgh.[2] He was the Democratic nominee in the2024 Pennsylvania Attorney General election, losing to RepublicanDave Sunday.[3] The following year, DePasquale was elected as the chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
DePasquale was born on August 3, 1971, inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[4] He graduated fromCentral Catholic High School and received a bachelor's degree from theCollege of Wooster. He later earned an MPP from theUniversity of Pittsburgh and a JD fromWidener University Commonwealth Law School.[5]
DePasquale was the eldest of three brothers. His youngest brother died while DePasquale was in law school after suffering frommuscular dystrophy. At that time, their father, aVietnam War veteran, was serving ten and a half years in prison on narcotics charges.[6]
DePasquale is the grandson of Eugene "Jeep" DePasquale, who served in thePittsburgh City Council between 1971 and 1989.[7]
DePasquale moved to York in 1997. He served as director of economic development for theCity of York in the early 2000s.[8]
From 2003 to 2006, DePasquale served as deputy secretary for community revitalization and local government support of thePennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.[9]
When incumbent state representativeSteve Stetler resigned from his seat and withdrew from the ballot during the2006 elections, DePasquale announced his intent to replace him. TheYork County Democratic Party selected him as their replacement nominee in August, and he defeatedRepublican nominee Karen Emenheiser 58.3% to 41.7%.[10] His legislative district included all of the city ofYork,Spring Garden Township, part ofWest Manchester Township, and the boroughs ofNorth York andWest York.
DePasquale was re-elected in2008, defeating Republican candidate Lon Emenheiser 75.1% to 24.9%.[11] In2010, DePasquale was unopposed both in his primary and general re-election bids.[12]
In April 2011, DePasquale announced that he would be running forState Auditor General in 2012 to succeed incumbentJack Wagner, who was term-limited.[13] DePasquale madeMarcellus shale drilling a central issue of his campaign, and promised to order an immediate performance audit of the Department of Environmental Protection to ensure the state's water supply had not been compromised by drilling.[14] He defeated Republican state representativeJohn Maher in the fall general election.[15] Both Maher and DePasquale were concurrently re-elected without opposition to their seats in the state house.[16]
DePasquale resigned his seat in the state house on January 15, 2013, and was sworn-in as auditor general later that day. He became the first person fromYork County to assume statewide elected office sinceGeorge Leader was electedgovernor in1954.[17]
In the2016 election, DePasquale was reelected auditor general with 50% of the vote, defeating Republican John Brown.[18]
In July 2014, DePasquale announced results of an audit of the Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) water programs related to the development of the state's shale gas reserves.[19] Results of that audit showed the DEP had been unprepared to effectively administer laws and regulations to protect drinking water and unable to efficiently respond to citizen complaints in the period 2009-2012.[20][21] The report cited sloppy record-keeping, lax oversight, and poor communication with citizens.[22]
In May 2016, an interim report by the Auditor General showed that in 2015 nearly 42,000 calls to Childline, Pennsylvania's hotline for reports of child abuse, went unanswered, up from 6,780 in 2014. Furthermore, only 0.005% of calls were overseen by a supervisor.[23] This report prompted changes within the state'sDepartment of Human Services which led to the tracking of all calls to the hotline, a minimum requirement for monitoring calls, and an increase in staffing.[24]
A September 2016 report from the Auditor General's office revealed that over 3,000rape kits were backlogged by local law enforcement agencies, awaiting testing, with 60% of them waiting untested for over a year.[25] A follow-up in May 2020 announced that the untested backlog had been reduced by 97%, due to increased financial support from the state budget, outside groups and federal programs.[26][27]
In the wake of thePittsburgh synagogue shooting, the Auditor General's office released a report in November 2018 on the subject ofgun safety in Pennsylvania and access to guns by those requiring mental health care, calling for greater monitoring by gun sellers of buyers in emotional distress.[28] DePasquale's office likewise audited the Pennsylvania background-check system for possible gaps and errors in its screenings for ineligible purchasers.[29]
Along with Pennsylvania GovernorTom Wolf, DePasquale co-chaired a School Safety Task Force that gathered feedback about safety concerns, drills and security measures to prevent or mitigate school shootings.[30]
In February 2019, DePasquale announced that officials in 18 Pennsylvania counties had disclosed that they had accepted improper (but not illegal) gifts from voting-machine vendors, and that several additional officials had failed to disclose such gifts.[31] This followed an investigation about the security of voter registration data, prompted by election-security concerns originating in the 2016 election.[32]
Term-limited from running again as Auditor General, DePasquale announced in June 2019 his candidacy for theUnited States House of Representatives to representPennsylvania's 10th congressional district.[33] He won the Democratic nomination on June 3, 2020.[34] DePasquale was defeated in the general election, with incumbentScott Perry being declared the victor on November 5.[35] DePasquale subsequently conceded the race.[36]
On June 1, 2023, DePasquale announced his candidacy forPennsylvania Attorney General in the2024 election. He cited his tenure as Auditor General as a reason to support him, and pledged to be a "pro-choice attorney general."[6] At the Democratic State Committee meeting in December 2023, DePasquale received 52% of the endorsement vote in a five-candidate field, but failed to meet the two-thirds requirement for an official party endorsement.[37] He won the Democratic primary election with 39% of the vote and faced Republican candidateDave Sunday in the general election.[38] During the general election debate against Sunday, DePasquale pledged not to enforce a hypothetical abortion ban in Pennsylvania.[39] DePasquale lost to Sunday.[40]
In 2025, the chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party,Sharif Street announced he was resigning to run for Congress. DePasquale subsequently announced his bid to replace Street with the outgoing chair's support.[41][42] He was elected chair on September 6.[43]
DePasquale lives inWest Manchester, Pennsylvania. He has two children and isLutheran.[44]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Eugene DePasquale | 7,561 | 58.28 | |
| Republican | Karen Emenheiser | 5,412 | 41.72 | |
| Total votes | 12,973 | 100.00 | ||
| Democratichold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Eugene DePasquale (incumbent) | 17,887 | 75.07 | |
| Republican | Lon Emenheiser | 5,941 | 24.93 | |
| Total votes | 23,828 | 100.00 | ||
| Democratichold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Eugene DePasquale (incumbent) | Unopposed | |||
| Total votes | 9,832 | 100.00 | |||
| Democratichold | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Eugene DePasquale (incumbent) | 16,804 | 83.04 | |
| Independent | Dave Moser | 3,431 | 16.96 | |
| Total votes | 20,235 | 100.00 | ||
| Democratichold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Eugene DePasquale | 2,729,565 | 49.73 | |
| Republican | John Maher | 2,548,767 | 46.43 | |
| Libertarian | Betsy Elizabeth Summers | 210,876 | 3.84 | |
| Total votes | 5,489,208 | 100.00 | ||
| Margin of victory | 180,798 | 3.30 | ||
| Democratichold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Eugene DePasquale (incumbent) | 2,958,818 | 50.01% | +0.28% | |
| Republican | John Brown | 2,667,318 | 45.08% | −1.35% | |
| Green | John Sweeney | 158,942 | 2.69% | N/A | |
| Libertarian | Roy Minet | 131,853 | 2.23% | −1.61% | |
| Total votes | 5,916,931 | 100.0% | N/A | ||
| Democratichold | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Eugene DePasquale | 29,036 | 58.6 | |
| Democratic | Tom Brier | 20,552 | 41.4 | |
| Total votes | 49,588 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Scott Perry (incumbent) | 208,896 | 53.3 | |
| Democratic | Eugene DePasquale | 182,938 | 46.7 | |
| Total votes | 391,834 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Dave Sunday | 3,496,336 | 50.81% | +4.51% | |
| Democratic | Eugene DePasquale | 3,178,571 | 46.19% | −4.71% | |
| Libertarian | Robert Cowburn | 88,807 | 1.29% | −0.48% | |
| Green | Richard L Weiss | 68,016 | 0.99% | −0.05% | |
| Constitution | Justin L Magill | 31,272 | 0.45% | 0 | |
| Forward | Eric L Settle | 18,144 | 0.26% | 0 | |
| Total votes | 6,881,146 | 100.0% | |||
| Republicanhold | |||||
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forAuditor General of Pennsylvania 2012,2016 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forAttorney General of Pennsylvania 2024 | Most recent |
| Preceded by | Chair of thePennsylvania Democratic Party 2025–present | Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Auditor General of Pennsylvania 2013–2021 | Succeeded by |