DEAN, HOULAHAN CRUISE TO VICTORY
The U.S. House of Representatives gained two new members Tuesday night when voters in Montgomery, Chester and Berks counties voted to send two Democrats to Washington, D.C.
Running in a new district drawn by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Madeleine Dean won election to the new 4th Congressional District, which comprises most of Montgomery County and the Berks County townships of Douglass, Colebrookdale, Washington and the boroughs of Bally, Boyertown and Bechtelsville.
According to unofficial results reported by the Associated Press, with 49 percent reporting, Dean had 103,479 votes, or 61 percent to Dan David’s 66,202 or 39 percent.
Dean had not issued a statement as of press time.
In his concession, David said “we ran a campaign that rejected the timeworn rhetoric and braved the difficult headwinds of present-day politics. Despite the outcome, we should be proud of what we’ve done together.”
“To my supporters across the district, to friends old and new, to my volunteers and staff and of course to my family and my wife Janine, let me express my tremendous gratitude. I also congratulate my opponent Madeleine Dean and wish her the best as she pre-
pares to represent our district,” David said.
Similarly, the new 6th District, comprised of all of Chester County and southeast Berks County, including Union, Birdsboro, west to Wyomissing and the city of Reading, was won by Democrat Chrissy Houlahan.
With 59 percent of precincts reporting, the Associated Press had Houlahan, with 82,427 or 59 percent to the 56,940, or 41 percent won by her opponent, Republican Greg McCauley.
Dean and Houlahan’s victories were part of a socalled “Blue Wave” of Democratic victories widely seen as a repudiation of the policies and Presidency of Donald Trump.
Democrats needed to win 23 GOP-held seats in 2018 to win control of the House, and victories by Dean and Houlahan provided two of them.
Dean, a Pennsylvania state representative for the 153rd District, earned her law degree from Widener University and practiced law locally before becoming an English professor and serving as an Abington Township commissioner.
She defeat Dan David, co-founder of a Skippackbased equities research firm named GeoInvesting who was also instrumental in uncovering fraud by Chinabased firms on the U.S. stock exchange.
David attended Northern Michigan University and the executive education program at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Houlahan and McCauley, are both political novices who have never before held elected office.
A third-generation veteran, Houlahan attended Stanford University on an ROTC scholarship, received a master’s degree from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and served as a captain in the Air Force.
She worked worked as an executive at the Paolibased AND1, was a chemistry teacher at a Philadelphia high school and also ran a nonprofit looking to increase literacy.
Houlahan won in a district currently represented by moderate Republican Ryan Costello who decided, late in the pre-election season, not to face her in what many had predicted would be a tough election battle in a district that had gone for Hillary Clinton in 2016 even before it was re-drawn by the court.