HARRISBURG, Pa. — Democrat Dan Goughnour handily won a special election in western Pennsylvania on Tuesday, keeping majority control of the state House in his party’s hands by a single seat.
Goughnour beat Republican Chuck Davis in a district in the Mon Valley region southeast of Pittsburgh, winning a seat that became vacant in January with the death of Democratic state Rep. Matthew Gergely.
In a second legislative special election Tuesday, in a suburban and farming part of Lancaster County, Democrat James Andrew Malone, the mayor of 4,500-population East Petersburg, was clinging to a narrow lead over Republican Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons. A Democratic flip of that district, if it occurs, would be a major upset but would not alter Republican control of the state Senate.
As of late Tuesday, the race was too early to call. With 99% of the estimated vote counted, Malone led Parsons by 482 votes, or 0.89% of nearly 54,000 ballots cast, with an unknown number of provisional ballots left to be counted.
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.”
Malone told WGAL-TV the national political environment was a factor.
“Everyday voters are not liking what they’re seeing in the federal level. They don’t like the chaos,” Malone said.
No matter the result, the Senate will remain comfortably in Republican control, and the chief executive is Gov. Josh Shapiro, a rising star among Democrats who is seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate. The partisan divide and power sharing in Harrisburg — a dynamic that has prevailed for much of the past two decades — has prevented major changes in state law.
After the House race was called, Goughnour said, “It’s overwhelming, but I feel good.” He said his goal was to “maintain common sense in Harrisburg” and give his district a strong voice.
“We knocked on thousands and thousands of doors,” Goughnour said. “We worked hard and didn’t take anything for granted.”
Goughnour’s victory means Democrats control the House by a single representative, 102 to 101. The party will be able to keep Democratic House Speaker Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia as the chamber’s presiding officer.
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a statement that the majority means state House Democrats “can stand up to Trump’s mayhem in Washington,” prevent efforts to weaken Shapiro’s authority and “continue to expand job opportunities, strengthen schools and create safe communities in Pennsylvania.”
The Senate vacancy in northern Lancaster County was created when Sen. Ryan Aument, a Republican, quit to take a job working for U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick. Malone and the Democrats built on a strong advantage in mail-in ballots to combat the Republicans’ significant voter registration edge.
On his way to narrowly winning Pennsylvania in November, President Donald Trump received 57% of the district vote, while McCormick, a Republican, received 56% in the district as he beat Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey. Aument ran unopposed in his last election in 2022.
Shapiro posted on social media that the results in Lancaster showed voters “chose a better way forward — an embrace of competence, commonsense and a desire to bring people together.”
Parsons is an establishment Republican, military veteran and former prosecutor who boasted about having visited the White House four times and working with Trump staff on policy issues.
Malone said a high priority was lowering the cost of everyday essentials.
“Honestly, we ran a good campaign,” Malone said while votes were being tallied. “We spoke to everybody about what we wanted to do, and frankly, a lot of people preferred us over the alternative.”
Goughnour, the winner of the House race, will be resigning as a detective supervisor after spending well over a decade as a police officer in McKeesport. He is a Teamster and a first-term member of the school board in McKeesport, where he graduated high school. Goughnour is married and has three children.
Davis, a veteran volunteer firefighter and fire chief, is president of the White Oak Borough Council.
The district is about 12 miles (19 kilometers) southeast of Pittsburgh, at the confluence of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers. Many of the towns that make up the district were part of the once-thriving steelmaking region, but the area is now economically challenged.
Democrats have held the Pennsylvania House majority since 2023, after they flipped 12 seats, the minimum needed to reclaim control after more than a decade. Since then, Democrats have maintained their majority by winning a series of special elections.