Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht Registers as Independent

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht announced he is registering as an independent after previously being a Democrat. In a statement distributed through the state court system, Wecht said he can no longer abide what he described as acquiescence to Jew-hatred that has become disturbingly common among activists, leaders and many elected officials in the Democratic Party.

Wecht will continue serving his 10-year term on the court, which he won in a retention election in November 2025. He was first elected to the court as a Democrat in 2015. According to the announcement, the switch changes the partisan balance of the seven-member court to four Democrats, two Republicans and one independent.

Wecht wrote that he and his wife were married at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Congregation in 1998, where he once served on the board of trustees. Twenty years later, the same sanctuary was the site of the worst massacre of Jews in American history, which killed 11 worshippers.

That 2018 attack came from the right, Wecht stated, but in the years since he has watched the same hatred grow on the left and move from the fringe to the mainstream. He cited jihadist chants, intimidation and attacks at synagogues, Nazi tattoos and other hateful anti-Jewish invective that he said are minimized, ignored or coddled by many in the Democratic Party.

"Acquiescence to Jew-hatred is now disturbingly common among activists, leaders and even many elected officials in the Democratic Party. I can no longer abide this. So, I won't." — Justice David Wecht, May 12, 2026.

Wecht noted that from 1998 to 2001 he served as vice-chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. He said the party has changed in the quarter century since then. Wecht emphasized that his jurisprudence has always been independent and will remain so.

He expressed hope that Pennsylvanians and Americans of all viewpoints would oppose and resist the scourge of Jew-hatred before it undermines what their ancestors built.

Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, responded to the announcement by saying the Democratic Party must confront its own rising antisemitism problem. Fetterman added that while he knows Wecht and his father and understands the personal choice, he is not changing his own party registration.

The Pennsylvania Republican Party posted on X that a sitting state Supreme Court justice had left the Democratic Party because he could not stand to be part of what it called the extreme antisemitism the party promotes. The party described Wecht's statement as a warning that antisemitism had moved from the fringe to the mainstream.

The list of other elected officials who have switched parties includes state legislators from South Carolina, Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, New Hampshire, South Dakota and Kentucky who became Republicans or independents. The two most recent switches before Wecht occurred in North Carolina, where state Representatives Carla Cunningham and Nasif Majeed both left the party after losing primaries to more progressive Democrats.

Newsweek reached out to the Pennsylvania Democratic Party for comment but did not report receiving a response.