Dem wins Trump district in swing-state Pennsylvania
A Democratic Navy veteran who served in former President George W. Bush’s Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday won a special election to fill a state Senate seat in suburban Pittsburgh, a district President Trump won in 2016.
Pam Iovino will represent the state Senate district that covers parts of Allegheny and Washington counties after she beat out D. Raja, a businessman who chairs the Allegheny County Republican Party.
The seat opened when Guy Reschenthaler (R) resigned to take a seat in Congress.
The results are an early hint at the difficult path President Trump may face as he tries to replicate his performance in Pennsylvania in 2020. Trump took 51 percent of the vote in the suburban district as he became the first Republican to carry Pennsylvania since George H.W. Bush in 1988.
“The district is being watched because it voted overwhelmingly for the president in 2016, so we’ll see how strong that foothold is,” Iovino told The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Democrats will now hold 22 of the 50 seats in the state Senate, compared to 26 seats held by Republicans. Two other seats are vacant.
After a string of wins in Republican-held state legislative districts in 2017 and 2018, Democrats went through a losing streak earlier this year. Republicans won Democratic-held seats in Minnesota, Connecticut and Kentucky in 2019; the Pennsylvania seat is the first seat of the year that flipped from Republican control to Democratic hands.
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