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MANHEIM, Pa. (AP) — Democrat James Andrew Malone narrowly won a special election for a Pennsylvania state Senate seat in Republican-leaning suburbs and farming communities, scoring an upset in a district that a Democrat hasn’t represented in the chamber for 136 years.
Malone’s victory over Republican Josh Parsons in Tuesday night’s election might provide a light in the darkness for Democrats struggling to unify around a strategy to counter President Donald Trump — and who are at each others’ throats publicly.
Malone said the chaos around Trump’s first two months in office helped him.
“If President Trump were trying to accomplish his agenda in a very methodical and cohesive and by-the-book way, we wouldn’t have as much vitriol as we do right now,” Malone said in an interview Wednesday.
“But he’s chosen to do it the way he does everything, right? Throw a brick in the basket and see what comes out,” said Malone, the mayor of tiny East Petersburg, population 4,500.
One of the top Democrats in the state Senate said Malone’s victory shows the national party the value of talking about protecting Social Security and health care access, amid what he sees as the chaos and pain that Trump’s administration is sowing.
“As much anger that people have, they have anxiety too,” Sen. Vince Hughes of Philadelphia said. “And last night’s election sends a message that people are going to respond.”
The Associated Press called the race Wednesday after receiving information from county officials that there were fewer ballots left to be counted than the margin in the race. Parsons conceded Wednesday. A Malone victory narrows GOP control of the state Senate to a 27-23 seat advantage.
Pennsylvania’s Republican Party chairman, Greg Rothman, said he didn’t think Trump’s performance in office hurt Parsons. The prices of gas and eggs are dropping and the federal government hasn’t cut Social Security or Medicare, he said.
Rather, Democrats did a better job at getting their supporters to vote early by mail, he said, while the more traditional Republican campaign apparently didn’t work.
“We need to take this as a wake-up call to the Republican Party that we can’t be complacent and we can’t just run campaigns like we’ve always run campaigns,” Rothman said. “We need to embrace early voting.”
Malone, 51, said he also was helped by Parsons’ confrontational and secretive style that alienated some Republican voters.
“That got around, you know. I have a contingent that literally just don’t want to see Parsons at the state level,” Malone said.
Parsons is a Lancaster County commissioner, military veteran and former prosecutor who has talked about having visited the White House four times and working with Trump staff on policy issues.
A Democratic flip of that district is a major upset. Trump won the district with 57% of the vote in November’s presidential election over former Vice President Kamala Harris. He 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.
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.
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 the disastrous November election in which Democrats lost control of the White House and Congress.
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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Follow Marc Levy on X at: https://x.com/timelywriter.
Mark Scolforo And Marc Levy, The Associated Press
