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Republican Tim O’Neal cracked the 4,000-vote threshold in Washington County’s 48th Legislative District, according to unofficial returns from the Washington County elections office, and declared victory. O’Neal, a veteran of the Afghanistan War who earned a “V” for valor and a Bronze Star, advertised this in contrast to that of Mitchell, an attorney, whom he portrayed playing the video game “Call of Duty.”

HARRISBURG, Pa. >> Pennsylvania voters have a lot to think about when they hit the polls for Tuesday’s primary, including a hotly contested Republican primary for governor. Also on the card are a five-way race for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, a Republican primary to pick who will take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in the fall, House races in the wake of the major redistricting case and a host of open seats in the Legislature. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and elections officials emphasize that the redistricting decision did not change the polling...

Pennsylvania Primary Election Results By THE NEW YORK TIMES

.Rep. Patrick Meehan is resigning from Congress to end the Ethics Committee’s investigation into allegations he sexually harassed a former staffer.

Rep. Charlie Dent (Pa.), a frequent critic of President Trump and a leader of the GOP’s moderate bloc in the House, said Tuesday that he will resign from Congress within weeks. His decision could set up a costly special election if the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania orders one. Dent had already announced his retirement from Congress in September, citing personal reasons for the decision while also lamenting the marginalization of the “governing wing” of the Republican Party as the GOP has moved further to the right. He said in a statement released Tuesday morning that he will leave “in the...

President Donald Trump praised Conor Lamb, the winner of the Congressional special election in Pennsylvania, for running a smart campaign on his agenda. “He said very nice things about me. I kept saying, is he a Republican? He sounded like a Republican to me,” Trump said. “But I guess when you’re popular in a certain area, that’s probably a good tactic.” Trump made his remarks during a closed-door fundraiser in Missouri on Wednesday evening. Audio of his remarks leaked to several media outlets. “It’s a pretty smart race, actually,” Trump admitted. “But he ran and he ran on that basis....

Serious shenanigans may have gone down in Pennsylvania's special election on Tuesday. From the Washington Free Beacon:Lamb currently leads Republican Rick Saccone by just 627 votes and there are still absentee and provisional ballots that have not been tabulated, but Republicans are already preparing for the likely recount and even a possible lawsuit regarding issues at polling sites, according to a Republican source familiar with the deliberations. "We're actively investigating three instances and likely to file court action on them," the source said. Among the listed concerns are "miscalibrated" voting machines in Allegheny County, the only county of four in...

Last evening I began watching the PA-18th-CD election returns on the New York Times newspaper election results site...which is by far the best in the business for election reporting and background information. As the initial election returns flowed in, the Times indicated that, though the race was very close, it appeared like Conon Lamb would eke out a victory scoring 52%-48% over Rick Saccone. Then about fifteen minutes later, the Times suddenly changed its prediction to Saccone winning by a 62%-38% over Lamb. The Times said that they had information as to voting patterns in the Conservative counties, indicating a...

According to the Pennsylvania secretary of state's tally, Democrat Conor Lamb leads Republican Richard Saccone by 579 votes, less than half the total of 1,372 votes received by the Libertarian candidate. The razor-thin 0.26% lead could vanish if Saccone manages to get a little over 60% of the absentee votes that remain to be counted. Allegheny County's absentee ballots are included in that count, but the absentee ballots in the three other counties in the district have yet to be counted: 1,195 in Washington County, 1,808 in Westmoreland County, and 203 in Greene County, for a total of 3,204 absentee...

Ryan told House Republicans on Wednesday they need to “get to work,” fundraise and not be caught off guard heading into the midterm campaign season after Democrat Conor Lamb appeared to edge past his GOP opponent in a closely watched special congressional election.

It could come down to a recount. Democrat Conor Lamb has already declared victory over Republican Rick Saccone in Pennsylvania’s special House election, but Republicans say they aren’t giving up until every vote is counted. The contest has still not been called, but Lamb leads Saccone by a few hundred votes. There’s no mandatory recount for a federal race in Pennsylvania, but Republicans have the option of petitioning for one. "This race is too close to call and we’re ready to ensure that every legal vote is counted,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Matt Gorman said late Tuesday. “Once they...

In the most astonishingly bone-headed move since nominating Mitt Romney for President, the GOP establishment spent major cash to help elect Democrat Conor Lamb in last night’s highly contested PA-18 special election. Yes, you read that right. Failed Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan and his Congressional Leadership Fund pushed a Democrat to victory over a Republican with direct mail advertising touting support “for our Second Amendment Rights.” I’ll repeat that again. A so-called GOP PAC led by Paul Ryan spent thousands of dollars in a direct mail campaign to convince voters that Conor Lamb was a conservative who would protect...

Republicans are panicked after Democrat Conor Lamb closed in on a victory over Republican Rick Saccone in a Pennsylvania congressional district that went for President Donald Trump by 20 points in 2016. That Lamb could perform so well in a district that overwhelmingly supported Trump and had sent a Republican to Congress without much contention for the better part of two decades signaled major challenges for the party as it seeks to maintain its congressional majorities in this year's midterm elections. "It's really hard to see how anyone looks at the factors Republicans are facing at this time, and the...

More than $10 million, a visit by President Donald Trump, the mobilization of the GOP army … all to buy a tie? It’s not just any tie. Republicans fought to almost (but not quite) even in a district Trump carried by nearly 20 points in 2016, and where Democrats had stopped bothering to even field House candidates in recent cycles. Plus, the district won’t even exist this time next year. Whether Conor Lamb assumes a seat in Congress is almost secondary at this point. He already showed that that red can turn purple and purple can turn close to blue,...

Remember when President Barack Obama insulted small-town Pennsylvania voters by saying they bitterly “cling to guns or religion”? In next week’s special election, there is a strange new twist to this condescending attitude towards people of faith coming from the Democratic congressional candidate, Conor Lamb. In a recent interview, Lamb oddly invoked his religion to defend his position in support of late-term abortion. He tells us that he never learned the term “pro-life” in Catholic school, and therefore he would vote against any limits on abortion, and would even oppose a recent bill to ban abortion past 20 weeks of...

As of this writing, Democrat Conor Lamb is clinging to a lead of roughly 600 votes in the special election for Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District. There are probably not enough uncounted votes out there for Republican Rick Saccone to pull out the win. It also really doesn’t matter much, one way or the other (unless you are a Democrat living in the 18th who feels strongly about having a Democrat represent you in Washington). Here’s why: The House is increasingly polarized. There was a time that a narrowed House majority for a party would make for interesting politics in Washington,...

DEmocrats win by ANOTHER razor thin margin after sudden late- night counting gives them enough? I AM NOT BUYING IT! If Trump does not get a handle on election fraud then we are lost. The democrats know this is their last hope to get the obama agenda back on track. If Trump got a supermajority they would be set back 40 years. They are going to pull off all the voter fraud they can- and then some. Because they know if they win THERE WILL BE NO INVESTIGATIONS

CANONSBURG, PA — Democrat Conor Lamb declared victory early Wednesday morning in his razor-tight bid for a Pittsburgh-area House special election, although the race hasn't yet been called. The seat, which voted for President Trump in 2016 by a 20-point margin, was once considered an easy win for Republicans. But Lamb currently leads Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone by 579 ballots, with some absentee ballots outstanding. "It took a little longer than we thought, but we did it. You did it," Lamb told supporters at his election night party shortly before 1 a.m., after he was introduced as "congressman-elect." "We...

A thread to discuss the results. I feel like Lamb has a lot of momentum, has run as a moderate, and has run a better campaign. I'll predict he'll win tonight (although I'd like to see Saccone win). NYT does a good job with election results.

Your comments, inputs, items of interest, relative weather in the district, turnout as the day goes by, voting problems with machines, equipment, things of interest to voters & observers, general overview, etc. are most welcome!!!