January 1, Pennsylvania Voters Reelect Lawmaker Who Died in October

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY…
1918: Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia receives a top-secret coded message from Europe stating on November 11, 1918 all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Tony DeLuca (D) won re-election in the Keystone State’s 32nd District — a remarkable feat considering he died last month.

DeLuca, 85, passed away on Oct. 9 from lymphoma. He was the longest-serving member is the state House of Representatives, with a tenure of 39 years.

That did not stop Pennsylvanians from voting for him, however. In fact, the late lawmaker dominated his Green Party challenger, Queonia “Zarah” Livingston, by more than 70 percentage points. DeLuca won 86% of the vote to Livingston’s 14%.

Despite DeLuca’s passing, it was too late to change the ballots or select a different candidate to run for the seat.

Pennsylvania Democrats celebrated the victory as a tribute to DeLuca’s legacy.

“While we’re incredibly saddened by the loss of Representative Tony DeLuca, we are proud to see the voters to continue to show their confidence in him and his commitment to Democratic values by re-electing him posthumously,” the Pennsylvania House Democrats said in a statement.

While it is certainly possible that some voters did not realize that DeLuca had passed away, it is also likely that many decided to vote for him over the far-left Livingston, knowing that his posthumous victory would trigger a special election to fill the seat.

DeLuca’s “seat will be filled by a special election, likely in early spring,” Pennsylvania House Democrats press secretary Nicole Reigelman told WTAE.

Sources: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | WTAE | New York Times