East Hempfield Democrat Michael Mezzetti secured a decisive victory Sunday to become the next Lancaster County Democratic Committee chair after weeks of internal debate over the previous chair’s management style.
Mezzetti, chair of the Hempfield Area Democratic Committee, will serve a four-year term as the party’s chair after winning 194 votes during the county committee’s quadrennial reorganization meeting, held at the Farm and Home Center in Lancaster. The current chair, Tom O’Brien of Manheim Township, received 68 votes.
“I’m pleased with the result and very happy with the way it went forward, and I hope we can all come together united,” Mezzetti said Sunday.
His term began immediately after O’Brien handed over the keys to the party’s headquarters on North Duke Street in Lancaster. O’Brien was first elected as chair in 2022.
Lancaster Township Area Committee Chair Charlotte Brown won the vice chair role after Stella Sexton, who held the role for the past four years and ran alongside O’Brien, dropped out. Adriana Hursh and Cheryl Holland-Jones, both Lancaster city residents, also dropped out of the races for party secretary and treasurer, respectively, after running as a part of O’Brien’s slate.
Elizabethtown resident Kristy Moore will be the party’s next secretary, and Manheim resident Olivia Knight will be the next treasurer.
Five former party chairs and multiple Democratic elected officials sent letters endorsing Mezzetti and Brown’s campaign in the days leading up to Sunday’s reorganization meeting, citing concerns with O’Brien and Sexton’s top-down approach to leading the party. Mezzetti said he plans to use a “grassroots” model as chair to allow each district to do what works for them.
O’Brien, in turn, argued that the most successful Democratic committees across the state follow a more hierarchical model. A grassroots approach, he said, proved unsuccessful for the party in the past.
“While disappointed, we honor the process and wish the new team good luck,” O’Brien said in a text Sunday night.
