Special elections: Here’s a recap of an active night of special election action, and as always, you can keep tabs on all the D-vs.-R races on our continually updated Big Board.
PA-HD-114: Democrat Bridget Kosierowski won this contest over embattled Republican candidate Frank Scavo. Kosierowski took 62 percent to Scavo’s 38. This was an important hold for the Democrats in an Obama-Trump district that Republicans had hoped to flip.
PA-HD-190: Democrat Movita Johnson-Harrell will become the first Muslim woman ever elected to the Pennsylvania state House after winning this race. Johnson-Harrell led the way with 66 percent. Third-party candidates Amen Brown and Pamela Williams took 20 and 11 percent, respectively, while Republican Michael Harvey rounded out the voting with three percent.
Johnson-Harrell’s total was watered down by the presence of the two independent candidates, causing her to underperform Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s mammoth margins in this district. On the other hand, Harvey’s total for the GOP was right in line with the very low single digits posted by Donald Trump and Mitt Romney.
As a result of the two elections in Pennsylvania, the state House returns to the 110-93 advantage Republicans had after the 2018 election.
GA-HD-176: James Burchett topped fellow Republican Jason Shaw 59-41 in this runoff election. Burchett and Shaw were the top two finishers in this south Georgia district in the first round of voting back in February. This hold means Republicans maintain their 104-75 lead in the state House.
ME-HD-24: Democrat Joe Perry will be returning to the state capital after winning this race. Perry, who was a state senator in this area from 2004-2010, posted a 64-36 win over Republican Thomas White. Democrats maintain a wide 88-56 advantage in the state House after this win, with half a dozen seats held by independents.
MS-HD-32, MS-HD-71, MS-HD-101: Two of the three officially nonpartisan races for the Mississippi state House were decided Tuesday night while one will head to a runoff. In District 32, Solomon Osbourne romped to a 79-21 win over Troy Brown. And in District 71, Ronnie Crudup took 63 percent in a three-way contest, while Edella Coleman took 24 percent and Stephanie Skipper took 12. Osbourne and Crudup will align themselves with the Democrats in the state House representing these strongly blue districts.
District 101 will be headed to a runoff on April 2. Kent McCarthy led the way with 39 percent. The battle for runner-up and a spot in the runoff was very tight, with Steven Utroska edging Andrew Waites 23.51-22.41 for second. Daniel Wade and Gary Crist each took 8 percent. This is extremely red turf and the eventual winner of this race will align with the GOP.
TN-SD-32: Republican Paul Rose easily won this suburban Memphis seat, defeating Democrat Eric Coleman 84-16. This margin represents a significant overperformance, even in this strongly Republican area where Trump took 68 percent and Romney received 71 percent. Republicans remain firmly in control of the state Senate by a 27-5 margin.
TX-HD-125: Democrat Ray Lopez is the winner of this runoff election. Lopez and Republican Fred Rangel were the candidates who advanced after the first round in February, when Democrats collectively won 62 percent of the vote to 38 percent for Rangel, the lone Republican. This time around, Lopez easily outpaced Rangel 58-42.
This race generated quite a bit of attention on both sides of the aisle. High-ranking Texas Republicans like Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. John Cornyn endorsed Rangel, while on the Democratic side, the state party injected $15,000 into the race to aid Lopez. For all the fanfare, this solidly blue districted remained just that.
All of the seats in the Texas House that became vacant after the November elections have now been filled, with Republicans holding an 83-67 advantage.