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Democrats won two key battleground races for the U.S. House on Nov. 9 and appeared poised to win a third as the vote counting continues.
Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright defeated Trump-endorsed business owner Jim Bognet in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District.
Attorney and Iraq War veteran Chris Deluzio, a Democrat, defeated former local township commissioner Jeremy Shaffer, a Republican, in the state’s 17th Congressional District.
And in the state’s 7th Congressional District, incumbent Democratic Rep. Susan Wild held a 1.6 percent lead over Republican nominee Lisa Scheller with more than 95 percent of the votes counted.Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District
Nestled in the Rust Belt of northeast Pennsylvania, where President Joe Biden was born, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre are cities once dominated by Democrats. But times have changed, and Republicans felt confident that Bognet would unseat Cartwright.
The district supported Trump in 2016 and 2020, but Cartwright won in those years.
Bognet won the Republican primary in 2020 but lost to Cartwright in the general election by around 12,200 votes. It was Cartwright’s closest race since he was first elected in 2012.
Conditions were different then. Biden defeated Trump, but the economy was flourishing and gas was under $2 a gallon.
A native of Hazleton, which is part of the 8th District, Bognet served as an appointee to the U.S. Export-Import Bank during the Trump administration. Trump endorsed Bognet in May.Pennsylvania 17th Congressional District
Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb left his seat representing Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District to run for the U.S. Senate in a race he ultimately lost to Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in the Democratic primary.
Deluzio and Shaffer decisively won their respective primaries. Deluzio defeated Sean Meloy by almost 27 percentage points, while Shaffer defeated the closest opponent by more than 34 percent.
