Elk County GOP and Dems reflect on Tuesday’s election outcome
ELK COUNTY - Elk County Republican and Democratic Committee members and local candidates of both parties waited nervously Tuesday evening as Election Night results came in around 9:30 p.m. However on Wednesday, both partys’ members and candidates reflected on both their own races and the state’s overall voting outcome.
PA State Representative Mike Armanini, who reclaimed for his seat in the state house’s 75th District against Candidate Erica Vogt of St. Marys, won his seat by about 79% of the vote.
“That not only told me that my party followed me, it also told me the whole district followed me. The votes reflect how the 75th District feels about the job I’m doing for them,” Armanini said.
He added the reelection to the seat will now allow him to continue the many projects and programs that have helped the district over the last two years of his first term.
“It gives me the opportunity to continue working with the programs and the agencies that we’ve already started moving forward to try and bring additional funding into the area,” he said.
As far as the state’s overall outcome with Democrat Josh Shapiro winning the state’s gubernatorial race over Republican Doug Mastriano, Armanini said he is hopeful that the governor-elect will fulfill his promises to remain bi-partisan.
“As he stated last night, he is ready to work with bi-partisan. He’s ready to make Pennsylvania great again and that’s what I want also,” Armanini said. “The outcome could have gone one of three ways. Unfortunately, it went the way I would have least liked it to.”
He acknowledged that both heavilypopulated Pittsburgh and Philadelphia voting districts, which are primarily Democratic, swayed the overall state outcome, he said the outcome also showed that most voters in a large majority of counties voted Republican. He added that that in itself indicates that most voters in the state are unhappy with many state-wide issues, but primarily rising inflation and how that is being handled by the Democratic Party.
“The majority of Pennsylvanians agreed that change was needed. The two metropolitan areas that play such a heavy hand, they came out and said, they’re okay with status quo,” Armanini said. “If things start to continue to deteriorate then they may be the last people to feel and possibly they’ll feel a change still needs to occur.”
While Vogt did not win her bid for state representative for which she was a writein, she said she felt the entire day was positive experience and she was grateful for the unconditional support from many voters.
“With the amount of time I had and a low budget, I feel like I got a lot of support. People who didn’t even know me were so supportive,” she said. “I see this as learning opportunity for next time because I’m not going away. I’m running again. “I’m going to be watching everything very closely to make sure our district is represented and I’ll definitely be a force behind that.”
Vogt, who is a teacher at FSG Elementary School, said she was pleased to see Shapiro had won the governor’s race since he has been supportive of the education issues in the past.
“He wants to make sure that rural areas like ours are fully funded. To make sure there is a mental health counselor in every building in every school district,” Vogt said “He’s looking at apprenticeship programs so that kids can get into industry and don’t have to worry about college debt. And a big one for us, is that he can start to deconstruct standardized testing.”
Elk County Democratic Party Chair, Rich Schweikart said the committee was disappointed that locally Democratic candidates, such as Vogt and Mike Molesevich, who was defeated in the race for Congress in PA’s 15th District by incumbent Glenn “GT” Thompson, did not win their races. “Unfortunately for our local candidates, it’s tough. We’re outspent considerably. We just don’t have the funds to compete there, but that’s something we’re working on,” Schweikart said. “We’re super happy that we helped deliver the state of Pennsylvania for Josh Shapiro and John Fetterman. It was a much better night than we had anticipated.”
He said the Elk County Democratic Party is under negotiations to have a permanent headquarters at its current location on Brusselles Street in St. Marys with the hope to be able to have a place where voters can come to sign candidate nomination petitions starting in February.
“Generally in February you’re walking around in the snow trying to get signatures. So having a place there where we have some office hours and people can stop in. It makes it a little more convenient,” Schweikart said.
Elk County Republican Party Chair, Sally Geyer said the committee is focusing on the successes of the election.
“I choose to look at the wins and not the losses. Our Representative in the Pennsylvania House, Mike Armanini won by a whopping 79%. Our Representative in Congress, GT Thompson won by a whopping 70% and will be the top agriculture person in the country when the House goes GOP,” Geyer said. “In October 2018, Elk County Republicans outnumbered Democrats by 10 to provide Traumatic Incident Reduction Services (TIR) for people of Elk and Cameron Counties, and is crafted to encourage relief and healing for victims of traumatic experiences.
They are forward to additional looking training staff in voters. Today, a mere four years later, there are 4,355 more registered Republicans than Democrats in Elk county. All of this is huge.”
Geyer added that she was pleased that across the country, Democrats only won by small margins.
“I look at the races across the country and the Democrats won by small margins and points. The Republicans, like (Florida) Governor DeSantis, (Texas) Governor Abbott won big,” she said. “We are having a victory/Christmas party for Mike and GT on November 15th. The candidates who will be working for us directly in PA and Congress
TIR during the summer and fall of 2022.
Other services CAPSEA extends to people are counseling and support services, prevention programs, and victim/witness services.
To show your support during SAAM, visit CAPSEA or any won by huge numbers. That directly matters to the people of Elk County.”
In a press release, Thompson reached out to voters to thank them for reelection to U.S. Congress.
“I’m grateful to the voters of the 15th Congressional District, who have given me the privilege and honor of being their voice and vote in Washington,” Thompson said. “My promise is to continue to fight for all Pennsylvanians and I will never stop working to address the many challenges facing our communities and this great country.” other organization that offers crisis care resources, decorate your home or businesses with the color teal, wear jeans on April 27th or use the hashtag #SAAM 2022 on social media platforms.