Editorial: Election for Santos seat strikes familiar chord in Pennsylvania
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It was an odd mid-winter special election, with all eyes turned to the Northeast on a Tuesday night as polls closed. While just one seat in Congress was on the table, the race to fill the vacancy left by an elected official who departed amid scandal was seen as a bellwether of where crucial November races would go.
Are we talking about the New York election this week to fill the empty space left by ousted and indicted George Santos? Democrat Tom Suozzi won that race over Republican Mazi Pilip by 8% — the same spread Santos won by in 2022.
Or are we talking about the March 2018 race to fill the Southwestern Pennsylvania office Tim Murphy resigned because of a sex scandal? Democrat Conor Lamb won over his Republican opponent, Rick Saccone, in a much closer contest — decided by fewer than 700 votes.
The similarities can prompt comparisons — not only between the special elections but the larger political clashes they precede.
In 2018, it was the midterms coming after the bitterly fought Trump-Clinton election of 2016. There was a groundswell of female-forward voting following then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s refusal to hold hearings on Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee and the subsequent installment of Trump nominee Neil Gorsuch.
Today, it is a presidential election year, with Donald Trump back on primary ballots for the third time. There is arguably greater women’s involvement in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision reversing Roe v. Wade abortion protections.
But there also was another special election Tuesday. After a 2023 that featured special elections for the state Legislature every few months, 2024 also has started with a race that kept that hair-thin Democratic majority in the House.
Jim Prokopiak won the most decisive of any of the elections discussed, taking District 140 (Bucks County) with 67.7% of the vote over Republican challenger Candace Cabanas. While predecessor Jim Galloway, now a district judge, also is a Democrat, it’s important to note Bucks is not exactly bright blue. While Hillary Clinton won the county in 2016, it was only by a margin of 0.78%.
For talking heads on television Tuesday night, the story was about what this means for the primary and election seasons. What did the Democrats do right? What can the GOP learn? Is this a trend?
It shouldn’t be a lesson for the parties. It should be a lesson for the voters. Turn out in every election — special, primary, general. Big and small, they all matter — and that importance extends long after election day.