1. Al Schmidt was a Philadelphia City Commissioner from 2012 to 2022.
10 Facts About Al Schmidt
1. 2.
Al Schmidt provided testimony before the January 6 Committee in 2022.
3.
Al Schmidt was chosen to serve as Secretary of the Commonwealth by Governor Josh Shapiro.
4.
Al Schmidt served as an analyst for the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States and the Government Accountability Office.
5.
Al Schmidt moved to Philadelphia in 2005, and served as executive director of the Philadelphia Republican City Committee before stepping down in 2009 for an unsuccessful run for City Controller against Democratic incumbent Alan Butkovitz.
6.
Al Schmidt was first elected as a Philadelphia City Commissioner in 2011, becoming the only Republican on the three-member municipal election board by winning the one seat reserved for a member who is not part of the majority political party in Philadelphia after he defeated the incumbent minority commissioner, Joseph Duda.
7.
In late November 2021, Al Schmidt announced he would resign as a City Commissioner to become president and CEO of the Committee of Seventy, a nonpartisan, pro-democracy Philadelphia-based nonprofit group.
8.
On June 13,2022, Al Schmidt testified before the January 6 Committee, detailing the threats against him and his family as well as addressing claims of voter fraud in Philadelphia during the 2020 election.
9.
On January 5,2023, Al Schmidt was named by Pennsylvania Governor-elect Josh Shapiro as the Secretary-designate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
10.
In January 2024, Al Schmidt ordered a court-appointed special master to demand $711,000 in legal reimbursements from the government of Fulton County stemming from a case where Fulton County's Republican commissioners improperly allowed a Trump-affiliated lawyer access to the county's voting machines in order to aid the attempted reversal of Trump's defeat in Pennsylvania.