{"id":17007,"date":"2018-11-07T09:55:58","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T14:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=17007"},"modified":"2018-11-07T09:56:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T14:56:00","slug":"chester-county-democrats-enjoy-local-tsunami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=17007","title":{"rendered":"Chester County Democrats enjoy local Tsunami"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Chester County\u2019s\u00a0 <\/span>Democrats made strong gains in legislative races Tuesday, winning a clear majority of State House seats and picking up a pair of state Senate seats \u2014 not to mention electing a Democrat to represent the entire county in 2019 as well as electing another Democrat to serve the southern part of the county almost immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the \u201cBlue Wave\u201d was intermittent across the country \u2014 Democrats did win control of the U.S. House of Representatives, but were defeated in many high profile U.S. Senate races \u2014 it was more of a Tsunami in Chester County, as very high voter turnout led to the ouster of four sitting State Representatives and a pair of state Senators.<\/span><\/p>\n

As was the case statewide, Chester County went strongly for Gov. Tom Wolf (D) over Republican challenger Scott Wagner. The same was true in the U.S. Senate race, which saw U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. win easy reelection over Republican Lou Barletta.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Congressional races, Democrat Chrissy Houlahan won an easy victory over Greg McCauley, 58.9% to 41% in the new 6th Congressional District which includes all of Chester County. Democrat Mary Pat Scanlon won the special election in the old 7th District (which includes the southern portion of Chester County) to replace the resigned Pat Meehan, defeating Republican Pearl Kim, 52% to 46%. Scanlon also won a full term in Congress, winning the 5th District seat in Delaware County, also over Kim.<\/span><\/p>\n

At her victory party in Phoenixville, Houlahan thanked her campaign supporters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe made history together tonight thanks to the incredible work and dedication of our campaign\u2019s countless supporters,\u201d Houlahan said. \u201cOur success in this election proved that people of good conscience can still come together, regardless of party or politics, around long-standing Pennsylvania values of civility and service. I\u2019m excited to get to work in Washington on behalf of all of us here in the 6th district, and I look forward to building on our success in this new Congress to address the challenges we face as a community and as a country.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

In state Senate races, Democrat Tim Kearney knocked off incumbent Tom McGarrigle in the 26th District 54%-46%, which is largely in Delaware County, but covers portions of northeast Chester County. In what may have been a bigger upset, Democrat Katie Muth unseated long-time Republican state Sen. John Rafferty in the 44th District, 53%-48%.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Chester County\u2019s nine State Representative races, Democrats won six \u2014 giving them a local majority in the delegation for the first time in recent memory \u2014 and knocked off a total of four incumbents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Democratic incumbent Carolyn Comitta won easy reelection in the 156th District over Republican Nick Deminksi, 56.5% to 45.4%. Democrat Dan Williams cruised to an easy win in the 74th District \u2014 seeking to replace the retiring State Rep. Harry Lewis Jr. \u2014 defeating Amber Little Turner, 61% to 39%. Both of those wins were seen as likely, as both districts have a Democratic registration advantage.<\/span><\/p>\n

in four other districts \u2014 where Republicans hold a registration advantage \u2014 Democrats were able to pull off four impressive victories.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 155th District, Democrat Danielle Friel Otten knocked off State Rep. Becky Corbin 54.6% to 45.4% in a race that had been polling closer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Otten, who got involved in politics over the controversial Mariner II pipeline, which she opposes, noted it took hard work by many people to fuel her win.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cToday, our community showed up together to stand for our American values,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cOur victory is an affirmation of the work we knew needed to happen regardless of tonight\u2019s outcome: having real conversations with our neighbors to build long-term community power.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

She said she plans to bring her stronger oversight over the pipeline to Harrisburg to protect the people of Chester County impacted by the project.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to all of us to create a world for all of us,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m so proud of all of the leaders who stepped up to knock on their neighbors\u2019 doors for the first time, had brave conversations with their friends and family, and stepped out of their comfort zone. Our community members grew as leaders, and we are all that much more powerful for the next steps we need to take to ensure access to affordable healthcare, provide quality education for every child, and stop Energy Transfer Partners and the oil and gas industry from destroying our communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In another high-profile race in the 157th District, Democrat Melissa Shusterman defeated State Representative Warren Kampf, 56.5% to 43.4%.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Unionville\/New Garden area, Democrat Christina Sappey defeated freshman State Rep. Eric Roe, 53.4% to 46.6% in the 158th District.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 167th District, Democrat Kristine Howard defeated incumbent State Rep. Duane Milne 52% to 48%.<\/span><\/p>\n

Republicans did manage to hang on to three seats in the county: State Rep. John Lawrence held off Democrat Sue Walker 54.4% to 44.3% in the 13th, while long-time Republican State Rep. Tim Hennessey fought off a tough race from Democrat Pam Hacker, 52.8% to 47.2% in the 26th District.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the closest race in the county, 11-term State Rep. Steve Barrar just barley held off Democrat Anton Andrew, 51.2% to 48.8 \u2014 about 700 votes \u2014 to hang onto the 160th District seat. Andrew won the Chester County portion of the district by a large margin, but Barrar was able to run up large numbers in Concord and Bethel in Delaware County to keep the seat.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times Chester County\u2019s\u00a0 Democrats made strong gains in legislative races Tuesday, winning a clear majority of State House seats and picking up a pair of state Senate seats \u2014 not to mention electing a Democrat to represent the entire county in 2019 as well as electing another Democrat to serve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4839,5787,6989,7506,5632,3162,214,649,7505,7508,7507,2180,216,7504,1953],"class_list":["post-17007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-carolyn-comitta","tag-chrissy-houlahan","tag-dan-williams","tag-danielle-friel-otten","tag-election-2018","tag-featured","tag-john-lawrence","tag-john-rafferty","tag-katie-muthy","tag-kristine-howard","tag-melissa-shustermanm-christina-sappey","tag-steve-barrar","tag-tim-hennessey","tag-tim-kearney","tag-tom-mcgarrigle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17007"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17008,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17007\/revisions\/17008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}