With counting of votes in Allegheny County pausing around midnight, Summer Lee leads Steve Irwin to represent Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District and her campaign has declared victory. Lee leads Irwin by 446 votes with Lee receiving 46,589 votes to Irwin’s 46,143. There are still two precincts in Westmoreland County and 26 precincts in Allegheny County to count. The counting of the remaining ballots will resume this morning.
Incumbent State Representative Jessica Benham, who identifies as LGBTQ, easily sailed to victory in Pennsylvania State House District 36 defeating challenger Stephanie Fox. She faces no Republican challenger in November.
Reproductive rights activist and openly LGBTQ candidate La’Tasha Mayes won her race to represent Pennsylvania’s State House District 24 defeating incumbent Martell Covington. With no apparent Republican challenger in November, Mayes will join Benham in Harrisburg.
In the race for Pennsylvania’s open 17th Congressional District, vacated by Connor Lamb, LGBTQ candidate Sean Meloy lost to Chris Deluzio.
State-wide, Attorney General Josh Shapiro and State Representative Austin Davis easily won the Democratic nominations for Governor and Lt. Governor, respectively, and current Lt. Governor John Fetterman defeated Congressman Connor Lamb for the Democratic nomination for Senate.
On the GOP side, Doug Mastriano, who lead an unsuccessful effort to overturn the election results of Pennsylvania in 2020, won the Republican nomination for Governor. During Mastiano’s victory speech, he invoked U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health Admiral Rachel Levine, MD, who is trans and previously served as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health, mockingly referring to her as “woman of the year” and used transphobic and homophobic language about youth sports and bathroom usage.
The race for the Republican nomination for Senate was too close to call with a dead-heat between TV’s Dr. Oz and Dave McCormick.