The Monroe County Republican Committee has new leadership.
Peter Elder is the new party chairman, and will serve alongside secretary Phyllis Wickerham and treasurer Scott Adair, after an election Saturday.
Elder formerly served as mayor of the village of Webster, and currently is the Republican commissioner for the Monroe County Board of Elections. Elder replaces Pat Reilly, who was elected to the position in 2023. Reilly declined to run for re-election due to plans to move to South Carolina.
The change in leadership comes as the Republican party — while surging in popularity nationally — faces an increasingly uphill battle in Monroe County.
The party has seen enrollment declines in traditional suburban strongholds, lost its grip on the County Legislature and Monroe County executive’s office, and failed to place a single candidate on the ballot for city offices this year.
Elder said for the party to have a viable future in Monroe County, it needs to be able to reach people it has historically missed.
“Going to the communities that we have not gone to before, going to the people who may or may not have vote for us before, and directly engaging them in how positive and how appropriate Republican principles are to the future of this county,” Elder said. “It's really giving people the option of having a two-party system.”
Reilly, in leaving the seat, described the party as in need of restructuring from the lowest levels of elected office before it can stand a chance in the more major county offices.
“I think you've got to rebuild, and you've got to rebuild from the town board level,” Reilly said. “It probably starts before that, with getting people involved in different boards, rather than the council, whether it be the zoning board or the environmental impact board or whatever boards, and really just rebuild that bench and move it up.”
When elected in 2023, Reilly had promised a similar approach to expanding the party’s reach, emphasizing a “grassroots” approach.
“There are a lot of volunteers that want to get involved,” Reilly said, in a 2023 interview with WXXI. “There's a lot of excitement in the grassroots, people who just are now motivated by civic engagement, but we just really weren't structured to bring them in and give them something useful to do.”
Republicans hold just one major county government seat — the District Attorney’s Office. Interim DA Perry Duckles stepped into the role this month after Sandra Doorley retired. The district attorney’s office will be up for election in 2026.
Elder said that election will be a critical race for Republicans. That election will stand as an opportunity for Democrats to control all major offices in the county. In the last two election cycles, Democrats have declined to put up a challenger to Doorley.
“Of the four county-wide offices, none of them, right now are elected Republicans,” Elder said. “So, we are in a place that we haven't been for about 100 years. This is a priority for next year to win that the DA seat.”
Republicans have seen a significant decline in party enrollment in Monroe County over the past couple decades. The September enrollment report from the Monroe County Board of Elections shows 127,340 enrolled Republicans to 205,536 Democrats, and 158,167 unaffiliated voters.
