As the week of Election Day 2022 draws to a close, it remains uncertain whether Republicans or Democrats will have the helm of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the next two years, with two southeastern races yet to decide the outcome.
Pennsylvania has 203 legislative districts, and electoral contests have been clinched by one major party or the other in 201 of them. Democrats prevailed in 101 of those races, meaning the GOP needs to win both of the still-undetermined seats in order to keep control of the general assembly’s lower chamber.
The closest nail-biter of the undecided races is in the Langhorne-based 142nd district, where Democrat Mark Moffa leads Republican Joe Hogan by a mere two votes. The candidates ran for the open district now represented by Frank Farry. The incumbent ran for his state Senate district and won.
Another razor-thin gap exists between vote totals in the 151st district for State Representative Todd Stephens (R-Horsham) and Democratic rival Melissa Cerrato. Stephens is currently up by just 26 votes.
In the nearby 144th district, Republican lawmaker Todd Polinchock trails Democrat Brian Munroe by 406 votes, spelling probable defeat for the former. Other GOP representatives decisively unseated in the Keystone State this year include Chester County’s Tim Hennessey and Chris Quinn, who lost to Democrats Paul Friel and Lisa Borowski, respectively.
The process of counting military and overseas mail-in ballots could go on until as late as next Wednesday, meaning the two closest races could easily flip. And the narrowness of the votes in the Stephens and Farry districts makes it all but certain that recounts will follow, meaning weeks will likely go by before it is known which candidates have won and which party will control the state House.
While GOP candidates in the state’s southeast faced a difficult night, a few state House seats stayed Republican. Representative K.C. Tomlinson from Bensalem beat Democratic challenger Laurie Smith, Doylestown-based Representative Shelby Labs fended off a challenge by Democrat Gwendolyn Stoltz, and Donna Scheuren ran successfully to represent the Harleysville area in a district now represented by Tracy Pennycuick, who was just elected to the state Senate.
Despite the ongoing uncertainty whether the Langhorne and Horsham districts will go blue, Representative Leanne Krueger (D-Swarthmore), who chairs the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee, said she believes her party’s victory is in hand. In a Wednesday news conference, the lawmaker averred, “We can confidently say that Democrats will win the majority in the state House.”
Republicans meanwhile will keep a sizable majority in the state Senate, with 28 members to the Democrats’ 22.
“Senate Republicans’ success at the ballot box on Tuesday demonstrates that Pennsylvanians still believe in our mission of fighting against higher taxes and promoting safer communities,” Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R-Bellefonte) said in a statement. “I congratulate my colleagues for their hard-fought wins in every corner of the state.”
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Mark Moffa” by Mark Moffa. Photo “Melissa Cerrato” by Melissa Cerrato for PA.
