Daniel J. Laughlin[1] (born c. 1962[2]) is an American politician currently representing the 49th district in the Pennsylvania State Senate as Republican since 2017.

One of four children of Dave, a World War II veteran and union carpenter, and Shirley, a former plane factory worker, he was raised in Erie Heights housing project.

Unlike most in his party, Laughlin has endorsed the idea of legalized recreational marijuana and increasing the minimum wage.

[9] Publicly, Laughlin warned that Republicans' focus on dubious election fraud would only serve to benefit liberal candidates.

[8] In August 2022, Laughlin sued the chair of the Erie County Democratic Party, Jim Wertz, as well as the alternative newspaper the Erie Reader, after the Reader published an op-ed written by Wertz which claimed Laughlin was on a presidential pardon request list for those involved in attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election.

[10] The brief Laughlin signed stated the signatories were not supporting the plaintiff nor defendant, but were instead informing the court of what they claimed was overreach into the electoral process by the administration of Governor Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court,[11] whereas the brief Kelly signed explicitly sided with Texas.

[12] The lawsuit was settled in December 2024, with the Reader agreeing to label Wertz's column as an opinion piece with no admission of liability.

[15] His wife admitted to removing papers to "prevent maybe somebody from reading all of the ridiculous, unjustified, completely dishonest, unprovoked attacks on my husband."

[16] In 2021, Laughlin and State Senator Sharif Street sponsored a bill to legalize cannabis use for individuals over the age of twenty-one.