The last time Mike Turzai, Jake Corman and Frank Dermody all faced challengers was 2010, when the House members were their caucuses’ whip, and Corman headed Appropriations.

Eight years later, all three have climbed to the very top of leadership—and are facing challengers channeling discontent with the status quo to try and knock them off.

“It doesn't matter if you’re Republican or Democrat. When we look at the issues, the same cast of characters aren’t working,” Joshua Nulph, Dermody’s 21-year-old challenger, said.

Wolf: "These senseless acts of violence are not who we are as Americans. My thoughts right now are focused on the victims, their families and making sure law enforcement has every resource they need."

Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed legislation on debt service, price gouging and technical training on Wednesday, all of which had received bipartisan, sometimes unanimous support in the legislature.

When he was the first Republican district attorney in Washington County, Steve Toprani concealed a Smith and Wesson .45 on his hip.

“I’ve done that for years to protect my family—especially when criminals were after me, and they were,” Toprani said.

His term in the office was a decade ago, when he ran a hard-fought grassroots campaign to unseat a 20-year Democratic incumbent under FBI investigation.

Now, he’s on the campaign trail again. But this time, it’s as a Democrat in the Monongahela Valley’s rolling hills and old factory towns, running on a platform that blends positions from the right, left and center—for unions, against new gun laws and legalizing recreational marijuana.

Among the Paneras, LA Fitnesses and frozen yogurt outlets in the northern Pittsburgh suburbs, an autumn crop of political signage is in full bloom. Every busy intersection bristles with placards emblazoned with oversized Ts, red swishes and green outlines of the commonwealth for races up and down the ballot, from governor to Congress to state rep.

Democrats have effectively no shot of flipping the state Senate, but a race for the body in the area looms large particularly in the 38th Senatorial District, as just a single blue flip would break the Republican supermajority.