Pennsylvania was the center of the political world, again. Here’s what happened and what’s next in 2023.

It was another huge year in Pennsylvania politics — which seems to always be the case these days.

The races for governor and Congress drew national attention, the state House flipped to the Democrats for the first time in more than a decade, and several political stars started to rise. Meanwhile Republicans said goodbye to their most electorally successful statewide figure in recent years, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, as the party moved in a different direction.

Here are the biggest stories of 2022, and how they’ll keep rippling into the new year.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro won the most powerful office in the state, and at a bare minimum, will be able as governor to block GOP attempts to pass laws restricting abortion or voting rights.

The surprise victories that could give Democrats control of the state House might offer even more room to maneuver, depending on which party prevails in the fight over control of the chamber that was triggered by several vacancies.

» READ MORE: Josh Shapiro is aiming for a reset with Pa.’s Republican legislators

Should Democratic control prevail, Shapiro could be more than just a veto machine looming over a Republican General Assembly. Instead, at least one chamber could work in concert with his agenda, potentially allowing Democrats to advance bills through the House and put pressure on the GOP-led Senate.

If Republicans manage to keep control, Shapiro has a tougher task, but he has a lot of experience in Harrisburg and has employed a big-tent approach in the weeks since his election. There’s reason to believe he might have a more deft political touch in navigating Harrisburg than Gov. Tom Wolf did.

While Shapiro held the governor’s office for Democrats, John Fetterman’s victory flipped a seat held by Toomey, changing the dynamics in Washington.

From a national perspective, he’ll give Dems a sliver of breathing room because they now have 51 senators who caucus with them, instead of 50, despite Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s recent decision to become an independent.

» READ MORE: How John Fetterman will fit in the U.S. Senate

Major legislation is unlikely to pass because the GOP will control the House, but Fetterman’s presence could have an immediate impact on the judiciary.

For years, Toomey and Pennsylvania’s Democratic Sen. Bob Casey have negotiated slates of U.S. District Court judges under presidents in both parties. Now two Democrats will be working with President Joe Biden. That could allow Democrats to nominate judges who might not have passed muster with a conservative like Toomey.

If Biden and Trump face off again in 2024, Pennsylvania this year saw something of a preview of the rematch. Both men came frequently to the Keystone State and took direct shots at one another.

Biden came to Independence Hall on Sept. 1 to chastise “ultra MAGA Republicans” as a threat to democracy. Trump responded days later at a rally in Wilkes-Barre. And then both men — along with former President Barack Obama — spent the Saturday before Election Day rallying in Pennsylvania.

Biden didn’t do many campaign stops this midterm, but both he and Trump take special pride in winning Pennsylvania during their respective presidential victories.

Several politicos elevated their profiles this year, signaling potential future ambitions.

Shapiro is already being discussed as a potential future presidential candidate after winning a swing state in a rout. Fetterman could be a unique presence in the staid Senate. He arrives with a big following, and now has a far broader platform.

Others have signaled that bigger things might await. U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler landed a job as the GOP’s chief deputy whip in the House and is now part of the leadership’s messaging operation. U.S. Rep. Scott Perry became chairman of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, which could have significant influence over the House agenda as Republicans take charge in that chamber.

Others have lined up potential future avenues. Dave McCormick finished second in the GOP Senate primary, but his campaign — and his personal funding of it — put him on the radar statewide. Some Republicans are already talking him up as a challenger to Casey in 2024.

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta finished third in the Democratic Senate primary, but also made a mark with a hard-working campaign and powerful personal anecdotes. The Philadelphian is also seen as a future contender — for something.

And Treasurer Stacey Garrity was a regular presence at campaign events for both GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano and Senate nominee Mehmet Oz, perhaps signaling her own wider ambitions.

Polls said this election was going to be all about inflation, but in Pennsylvania two other topics appeared to spark a Democratic sweep.

Pennsylvania had already seen democracy under threat when Trump falsely declared victory in the state in 2020 and then tried to overthrow the election result when he lost. This year, abortion became a front-line issue when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Both issues were front and center for Pennsylvania voters in 2022, given the stakes of the race for governor and Mastriano’s extreme stances on both. Candidates in other races, even those that had nothing to do with state law, similarly emphasized the topics.

Toomey wasn’t exactly beloved: Liberals saw him as an arch-conservative too accommodating of Trump, and conservatives didn’t think he spent enough time focusing on the state GOP. (The latter also didn’t like that he voted to convict at Trump’s second impeachment trial.)

But with wins in 2010 and 2016, he’s also the only major Republican to win two statewide elections in recent years, and his departure embodies the way the GOP has changed. Gone is the conservative, mild-mannered businessman who focused on fiscal issues. In are the fuming culture warriors promising to take on the “woke” left. (See: Mastriano, Doug).

The only hitch: Toomey’s approach worked in Pennsylvania. The other one hasn’t.

» READ MORE: What’s next for the Tuesday with Toomey demonstrators who protested for 6 years

After the GOP fell short of expectations in this year’s elections, one of the big questions in state politics going forward is how Republicans respond. Will they revamp their style as many sour on Trump as a political force? Or will they continue pushing the combative style that has become more popular in their coalition, but less so in general elections?

Democrats in November won a razor-thin majority of seats in the state House for the first time in more than a decade, erasing a 23-seat GOP advantage in Harrisburg’s lower chamber.

But Democrats are far from taking control thanks to some untimely vacancies. Although they won 102 seats in the 203-seat House, one member died shortly before being reelected in November, and two others resigned because they won higher office. Democrats — led by State Rep. Joanna McClinton, a Philadelphia Democrat who would be the first woman to lead the House — say they have the majority. But Republicans are attempting to stay in power despite their electoral losses, setting up a showdown that could be decided by the courts.

Meanwhile, the state Senate is itself preparing for an unprecedented January that will feature Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s impeachment trial, the first such proceeding in three decades.

After two police officers at Philadelphia’s Fourth of July celebration were struck by bullets from what turned out to be distant celebratory gunfire, an exasperated Mayor Jim Kenney lamented that the threat of gun violence looms over all public events in the city and told reporters, “I’ll be happy when I’m not here — when I’m not mayor.”

Kenney later said he regretted his choice of words, which he said reflected his “frustration over the fact that we are expected to solve a problem when all the tools to solve the problem have been systematically taken away by the state legislature,” referring to Harrisburg’s monopoly on gun regulations.

But the damage was done, and the comments have become a defining moment of his administration, which began with significant policy wins in Kenney’s productive first term but has since been widely criticized for failing to address the city’s gun violence crisis with adequate urgency.

In 2022, an unprecedented five City Council members and City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart resigned to run in next year’s mayoral race. They are joined by State Rep. Amen Brown, grocer Jeff Brown, former Municipal Court Judge James DeLeon and potentially others in seeking the all-important Democratic nomination in the May 2023 primary.

» READ MORE: Who's running for Philadelphia mayor in 2023?

Four of the former lawmakers who stepped down – Derek Green, Cherelle Parker, Maria Quiñones Sánchez, and Allan Domb – have already been replaced on Council through special elections held in November. Council President Darrell L. Clarke has not yet announced when the seat of former Councilmember Helen Gym will be filled.

The resignations set the stage for a municipal election cycle in 2023 that could significantly reshape the politics of City Hall amid a public safety crisis and economic uncertainty.

This year also saw the conclusions of the legal sagas of Council members Bobby Henon and Kenyatta Johnson, who both had been indicted in unrelated federal bribery cases.

Henon was convicted in late 2021 in a case centered on the politically powerful electricians union. He initially sought to remain in office while he awaited sentencing, but ended up resigning in January, two hours before Council’s first meeting of 2022. Henon, who still has not been sentenced, was replaced by Councilmember Mike Driscoll in the Lower Northeast Philadelphia-based 6th District in a special election in May.

Johnson, meanwhile, suffered through two lengthy jury trials this year in a case in which federal prosecutors alleged he accepted a bribe in the form of a consulting contract for his wife. In the first trial, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. In the second, Johnson and his wife were acquitted, a significant victory for the third-term Democrat and an embarrassing defeat for the federal prosecutors’ office in Philadelphia.

Staff writers Andrew Seidman and Julia Terruso contributed to this report.