Graphic by Kaitlyn Patterson '20.
Pennsylvania special election for 18th District
On March 13, Pennsylvania held a special election to fill a seat for the 18th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Democratic candidate Conor Lamb was unofficially announced as the winner by approximately 700 votes, a feat that The New York Times dubbed a “narrow but major upset.” Lamb ran for the position against Rick Saccone (Republican) and Drew Miller (Libertarian).
Although the election took place a week ago, there still is no official answer about who won the vote. As of March 16, provisional and military ballots were still being tallied; however, there has been speculation that there are not enough uncounted ballots to push Saccone ahead.
Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District is known as a “reliably Republican” seat. According to the New York Times, President Donald Trump won the vote in the 18th District by twenty percentage points in the 2016 presidential election.
Who were the candidates?
Lamb, a Democrat, is a former Marine Corps captain and prosecuting attorney from Pittsburgh, according to his
official campaign site. Key components of his campaign agenda included alleviation of student debt, “taking immediate action to fight the heroin crisis” and protecting government programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
Saccone, a Republican, also comes from a military background: before running for Congress, he worked as a counter-intelligence agent for the U.S Air Force and was on the counter-terrorism task forces for two Olympic Games, according to his campaign site. Saccone’s campaign platform was centered around immigration reform, healthcare reform and lowering taxes.
Drew Miller, Libertarian, emphasized his fiscally conservative yet socially liberal platform: on the financial side of his agenda, he intended to work for tax reform, increased jobs and a reduction of government spending. Socially, Miller announced he would legalize marijuana, reform drug enforcement, “end the opioid epidemic” and limit government surveillance on civilians, according to his campaign site. Previously, Miller worked as Legal Counsel to the Majority Whip of the Pennsylvania Senate; currently, he is working as an energy attorney in Pittsburgh.
Why a special election?
In Oct. 2017, Tim Murphy, a Republican who held a seat in the house for the 18th district of Pennsylvania, submitted his letter of resignation after allegations of an extramarital affair came to light.
It was later revealed that Murphy had pressured the woman to receive an abortion following the affair. The seat associated with Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District has been vacant since Murphy’s letter of resignation went into effect on Oct. 21, 2017. Murphy had been active in the U.S. House of Representatives since the year 2002.
How did the opponents react?
In the 2016 election, the 18th District voted heavily for then-Republican candidate Trump. The district’s high potential for a Democratic vote is then a shock to the GOP.
As of March 17, the Pennsylvania Republican Party has asked the Department of State to check for “irregularities” in the election, accusing county officials of such mistakes as not making the election public enough to voters and delaying attorney Russell Giancola, who was with the Saccone campaign, from watching the counting of the votes, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Other accusations from the Republican Party, CNN reported, included voting machines not being calibrated appropriately and voters not appearing on voter rolls (the lists of people eligible to vote in a district).
What happens next?
Once all of the remaining uncounted votes are tallied, the counties involved in the 18th Congressional District will have a five-day window to challenge the count. Republicans from the counties have already taken precautions to ensure that all necessary materials, such as voting machines and ballots, are made secure to allow for a recount.
Due to the reconfiguration of the Pennsylvania Congressional District map, however, Lamb will have to select a different district to run in for reelection. What was previously Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District now overlaps approximately five of the newly determined Pennsylvania districts.
According to the Washington Post, Lamb has filed to run for office in the new 17th District, which includes both the Pittsburgh suburbs he won this past Friday and the more conservative Beaver County.
While he has not officially conceded a loss to Lamb as of March 19, Saccone will run in the new 14th District, which includes the more rural, conservative areas of the old 18th District.