Lamb wins again
In his second election this year, congressman takes newly created 17th District
Doing their part to help their party close in on taking back control of the U.S. House from Republicans, Democrats in Pennsylvania flipped four congressional seats on Tuesday.
Democrats had seven opportunities to pick up seats from Republicans, including one in Western Pennsylvania that Rep. Conor Lamb carried easily.
Elsewhere, Democrats flipped seats in the 5th, 6th and 7th districts, and came within percentage points of the Republican candidates in the 1st, 10th and 16th, which were called for the Republican candidates late Tuesday night.
In the closely watched 17th District, Mr. Lamb toppled incumbent Rep. Keith Rothfus on the way to his second electoral triumph in one calendar year. Mr. Lamb, a former federal prosecutor who won his seat in Congress in March in a special election, pledged to help guard people’s health, pensions and “your children’s future” while “protecting this planet” at an election night party in Cranberry.
“We are beginning to restore the America we know and love,” Mr. Lamb said. “I believe in this country and in our government, and I know that it can be a positive force for goodin the lives of our people.”
Mr. Rothfus’ fate was what Republicans had worried about: that the state Supreme Court redrawing of the congressional districts would open up the map for Democrats. Before the court ruled the previous map unconstitutional in January, Republicans had won 13 of 18 House seats in three straight elections — even as Democrats performed well in statewide elections.
In the first election in which Pennsylvanians were able to offer an electoral verdict on the new map, they decided to send a delegation to the U.S. House made up of nine Democrats and nine Republicans. Pennsylvania’s delegation is currently composed of six Democrats and 10 Republicans, with two seats vacant.
The Pennsylvania delegation currently lacks a congresswoman, but that will change significantly with the victories of four women: Madeleine Dean in the 4th, Mary Gay Scanlon in the 5th, Chrissy Houlahan in the 6th, and Susan Wild in the 7th.
But all eyes in Western Pennsylvania were on the 17th, where Mr. Lamb won the nation’s only battle of two incumbents. The district, encompassing most of Beaver County, the northern half of Allegheny and a small corner of Butler, went to President Donald Trump by just two points in 2016.
Mr. Lamb has toed the line of his party’s moderate wing. He focused much of his campaign on his pragmatic, bipartisan approach to issues like the opioid epidemic and access to affordable health care, and said it would be “totally premature” to talk about impeaching the president if Democrats took control of the House.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, in an interview before Mr. Lamb’s victory became certain, said a Democratic majority in the U.S. House means that Mr. Lamb and Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, will have leverage on crucial federal funding issues.
Mr. Lamb didn’t mention the president by name in his victory speech.
Mr. Rothfus, a four-term Congressman of the current 12th District, didn’t embrace the president as much as other Republican candidates across the country, but he did embrace the growing economy — which he said was because of Republican-led tax cuts and regulation rollbacks.
“We have turned the country around over the last two years,” Mr. Rothfus told supporters at his party in Emsworth, after saying he congratulated Mr. Lamb. “We knew if you put more money in people’s pockets and got Washington off their back, this economy would flourish and be healthy again.”
Western Pennsylvania also elected Republican Guy Reschenthaler to the House, the GOP’s only flip in the state.
Mr. Reschenthaler, 35, ran on securing the border and national security, touting his experience serving in Iraq for the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General Corps, and, as a lawyer, prosecuting terrorists in Baghdad. He also campaigned on the promise of a growing economy — one that he said will help ensure programs like Medicare and Social Security are funded.
Mr. Reschenthaler took the podium at 10:50 p.m. at his election night party to tell the more than 200 people: “The votes are all in and the people have spoken. And we’re headed in a new direction in southwestern PA.” He said his election was about “conservative values” and his platform was “really about faith, the flag and family.”
The race, in territory friendly to Republicans and spanning Greene, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties, was one of the state’s quietest, but it reflected national issues. Ultimately, his Democratic opponent Bibiana Boerio struggled to flip voters across party lines for her platform of protecting those with pre-existing conditions and ensuring access to affordable health care for all.
After national networks called the election for Mr. Reschenthaler shortly after 10 p.m., Ms. Boerio called him to concede. Thanking her volunteers at a watch party in Greensburg, she said her immediate plans include visiting her 6month-old niece in the Washington, D.C., area, but hinted that she wants to stay involved in helping the Democratic Party build an infrastructure in her home district.
“Nobody thought we had a chance,” she said. “But if it were easy, other people would have entered.”
About 10 p.m., former Rep. Tim Murphy, who represented much of this newly drawn district until he resigned in a scandal, showed up to the Reschenthaler watch party.
Though Mr. Murphy would have not run in this district — he would have had to run against Democrat Mike Doyle who won unopposed — he said he came because he “wanted to see him and hand off the baton in a way.”
In the 16th District, Ron DiNicola, a lawyer and the Democratic challenger, was edged out by Republican incumbent Mike Kelly, who appeared on track to win a fifth term.