MANHEIM, Pa. (AP) — Democrats struggling to unify around a strategy to counter President Donald Trump and at each others' throats publicly might have gotten a light in the darkness in Pennsylvania in an election in solidly Republican territory.
Democrat James Andrew Malone was clinging to a narrow lead after Tuesday night's special election for a state Senate seat in a stretch of Republican-leaning suburbs and farming communities that a Democrat hasn't represented in the chamber for 136 years.
A top state Senate Democrat, Sen. Vince Hughes of Philadelphia, said Malone's success — even if he ends up losing — shows the value of Democrats talking to people about protecting Social Security and health care access amid the chaos and pain that Trump's administration is sowing.
“As much anger that people have, they have anxiety too,” Hughes said. “And last night's election sends a message that people are going to respond.”
As of late Tuesday, the race was too early to call. With 99% of the estimated vote counted, Malone led Republican Josh Parsons by 482 votes, or 0.89% of nearly 54,000 ballots cast, with an unknown number of provisional ballots left to be counted.
Democrats have declared victory.
A Democratic flip of that district, if it occurs, would be a major upset. Democrats say that Trump won the district by 15 percentage points in November's presidential election over former Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump went on to win the battleground state of Pennsylvania by almost 2 points.
A Democrat last represented Lancaster County in the Senate in 1889, Democrats say. A Malone victory would narrow GOP control of the state Senate to a 27-23 seat advantage.
Malone is the mayor of tiny East Petersburg, population 4,500. Parsons is a Lancaster County commissioner, military veteran and former prosecutor who boasted about having visited the White House four times and working with Trump staff on policy issues.
Parsons posted on social media late Tuesday that he was “disappointed in the numbers” and that “it appears we will come up a little short.”
The election comes amid Democratic infighting and a torrent of frustration and anger over Senate Democrats in Washington, led by Sen. Chuck Schumer, ensuring the passage of a Trump-backed spending measure that rank-and-file Democrats had opposed over provisions they said would give Trump broad discretion on decisions that are traditionally left to Congress.
Schumer said the bill’s passage avoided a government shutdown that would have been worse. Following the vote, internal dissension burst into the open, with tension unusually high following a November election in which Democrats lost control of the White House and the Senate, and failed to win the narrowly divided House.
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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Follow Marc Levy on X at: https://x.com/timelywriter.
