Running political battles have broken out in “purple” states across the country, where Democrats made solid gains in last month’s midterm election and where ruling Republicans hope to hold onto power into next year.

In states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Democrats chipped away at GOP control over their legislatures. In Wisconsin, the Republican lawmakers and governor who run the state are now seeking a last minute end-run — passing bills to weaken the incoming Democratic governor and shrink voting windows in areas that supported him.

Could the same happen here?

Republicans are still set to control the state House and Senate in Harrisburg for the coming session, although Democratic challengers knocked out the Senate GOP supermajority and added seats in both chambers. Gov. Tom Wolf handily beat challenger Scott Wagner, leaving the Democrats with a backstop.

That’s not the case in Wisconsin, where outgoing Gov. Scott Walker still holds power during the “lame duck” session. Republicans there are set to remain in control of the Legislature as well, leaving the state in a similar position to Pennsyl­vania’s.

But in Wisconsin, the GOP is fighting hard to maintain a sliver of control, in what opponents have labeled a “coup.” Lawmakers are pushing reforms that could keep their incoming Democratic governor, Tony Evers, from exercising his predecessor’s full power.

One bill would require future governors to have legislative support to change federal health care waivers. That would prevent Evers from eliminating a GOP-backed policy that created work requirements for some residents getting government-funded health care.

Other bills would make it harder for Evers to reverse a Walker-backed policy that opened the state Capitol for firearms, and to appoint his own members to a state business commission that supports massive tax breaks for incoming manufacturers.

Another Wisconsin bill, passed last week, would slash the amount of time voters have to file absentee ballots in large cities that tend to favor Democrats. Similar efforts are underway in other states; in North Carolina, former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory said last week that the state should end absentee voting for all except military personnel.

Could Pennsylvania find itself in a similar position?

In many ways, it’s already in one. Wolf and Republican lawmakers have been embroiled in a lengthy, low-grade conflict over an array of executive and legislative powers for years.

Republicans don’t have much need to challenge Pennsylvania’s absentee ballot rules: The state is already among the country’s strictest, affording voters comparatively little time to choose. Absentee voters must submit their ballots several days before an election, a requirement that leaves some without ballots by the deadline, the American Civil Liberties Union has argued.

In fact, the group — along with a collection of experts and open-voting allies — filed a legal challenge last month against Pennsylvania’s strict absentee rules. The voting method has become a point of contention in other purple states like North Carolina, where a tight congressional race has prompted claims that GOP operatives stole voters’ absentee ballots.

Other efforts, including to add Medicaid work requirements akin to those in Wisconsin, failed under Wolf’s veto pen. A springtime push to impeach Democratic state Supreme Court judges who drew new congressional boundaries fizzled as well.

Much of the ongoing battle between Wolf and GOP lawmakers revolves around redistricting, which could rebalance power for years to come. Wolf opened a new commission last month to investigate redistricting options, but Republican legislators have panned the effort and demanded a greater say in the state’s electoral maps.

Fights over the balance of power continue, with some Republicans pushing even more radical measures to remake the state: state Sen. John H. Eichelberger Jr., R-Blair, who is leaving the Senate after a run in this year’s congressional primary, long supported a constitutional convention to rewrite the state’s founding document.

But in practical terms, the Pennsylvania GOP’s ability to extend and reproduce its political power may be on the wane. In a column late last month, well-known state political observers G. Terry Madonna and Michael L. Young noted that the party is losing its grip statewide, from failed gubernatorial campaigns to a lack of state row offices — and now the threat of Democrats retaking a legislative chamber in 2020.

“As recently as four years ago, the GOP controlled the governor’s office, maintained unchallenged control of both houses of the state legislature, and dominated the state’s congressional delegation, holding three of every four seats. Few if any political parties outside the Southern states have enjoyed such a hegemony lasting as long as Pennsylvania’s GOP,” they wrote. “But now the party may be facing long-term decline after some 160 years of party ascendancy.”

Even so, Pennsylvania Republicans remain powerful two years after then-candidate Donald Trump won the state.

In other news:

n Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, R-10th District, is in contention to head the conservative House Freedom Caucus, according to Washington reports. The group pushes the most hardline conservative policies in the House GOP.

“I believe Perry will get the nod,” one caucus member told D.C. news outlet The Hill. The caucus — founded in 2015 with origins in the tea party movement — is set to serve in a GOP minority for the first time.