Harrisburg, Pa. – The Democrat Dan Goughnour easily won a special election in western Pennsylvania on Tuesday, maintaining control of the majority of the House of Representatives in the hands of his party. A single seat.
Goughnour beat Republican Chuck Davis in a district in the Mon Valley region southeast of Pittsburgh, winning a seat that was vacant in January with the death of the Democratic state representative Matthew Gergely.
In a second special legislative election on Tuesday, in a suburban and agricultural part of Lancaster County, the Democrat James Andrew Malone, mayor of 4,500 populations of this Petersburg east, clung to a close leadership over the Republican Commissioner of the Lancaster County, Josh Parsons. A democratic change of that district, if it happens, would be a big surprise, but would not alter the republican control of the state Senate.
Until Tuesday night, the race was too early to call. With 99% of the estimated votes counted, Malone led Parsons for 482 votes, or 0.89% of almost 54,000 tickets cast, with an unknown number of provisional tickets that are counted.
Parsons posted on social networks on Tuesday night that he was “disappointed with the numbers” and that “it seems that we will be a bit brief.”
Malone told Wgal-TV that the national political environment was a factor.
“Everyday voters do not like what they are seeing at the federal level. They don’t like chaos,” Malone said.
No matter the result, the Senate will remain comfortably in Republican Control, and the Executive Director is Governor Josh Shapiro, a rising star among Democrats that is seen as a potential presidential candidate of 2028. The partisan division and shared power in Harrisburg, a dynamic that has prevailed for much of the last two decades, has prevented important changes in state law.
After the house was called, Goughnour said: “It’s overwhelming, but I feel good.” He said his goal was to “maintain common sense in Harrisburg” and give his district a strong voice.
“We call thousands and thousands of doors,” said Goughnour. “We worked hard and we didn’t give anything for granted.”
Goughnour’s victory means that Democrats control the camera with a single representative, 102 to 101. The party can keep the Democratic President of the House of Representatives, Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia as the president of the Chamber.
The president of the National Democratic Committee, Ken Martin, said in a statement that the majority means that the Democrats of the House of Representatives “can face Trump’s chaos in Washington,” avoid efforts to weaken Shapiro’s authority and “continue expanding work opportunities, strengthen schools and create safe communities in Pennsylvania.”
The vacancy in the Senate in the north of Lancaster County was created when Senator Ryan Increase, a Republican, stopped taking a job working for the American senator Dave McCormick. Malone and the Democrats were based on a strong advantage in the tickets by mail to combat the important advantage of voters of the Republicans.
On the way to win by little Pennsylvania in November, President Donald Trump received 57% of the district voteWhile McCormick, a Republican, received 56% in the district while defeating the American Democratic Senator Bob Casey. Increase ran out of opposition in his last elections in 2022.
Shapiro published on social networks that the results in Lancaster showed that voters “chose a better way to follow, a hug of competition, common sense and a desire to unite people.”
Parsons is a republican establishment, veteran military and former prosecutor who boasted of having visited the White House four times and working with Trump’s staff on policy issues.
Malone said a high priority was reducing the cost of daily essential elements.
“Honestly, we made a good campaign,” Malone said while the votes were being counted. “We talked with everyone about what we wanted to do, and frankly, many people preferred us about the alternative.”
Goughnour, the winner of the house career, will resign as a detective supervisor after spending more than a decade as a police officer in McKeesport. It is a team of team and first -term member of the school board in McKeesport, where he graduated from high school. Goughnour is married and has three children.
Davis, a veteran volunteer firefighter and firefighters, is president of the Borough Council of Oak White.
The district is about 12 miles (19 kilometers) to the southeast of Pittsburgh, at the confluence of the Monongahela and Yaughiogheny rivers. Many of the cities that make up the district were part of the steel creation region that once prolongs, but the area now has an economic challenge.
Democrats have celebrated the majority of the Chamber of Pennsylvania since 2023, after they Voled 12 seatsThe minimum necessary to recover control after more than a decade. Since then, the Democrats have maintained their majority by winning a series of Special elections.
