HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania is home to five heavily contested races for the U.S. House, contests that will be critical to determining control of a narrowly divided chamber where Democrats need a net pickup of four seats to take control.
Three of those five races are in eastern Pennsylvania, where Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and Democratic Reps. Susan Wild and Matt Cartwright are defending their seats in districts that are viewed as perennially competitive.
A fourth district is in southern Pennsylvania, where Republican Rep. Scott Perry is seeking a seventh term. Another competitive contest was in the suburbs and former steel towns west of Pittsburgh where Democratic Rep. Chris Deluzio won a second term.
Here is a look at those five key races:
1st District
Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick won reelection to a U.S. House seat representing Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
Fitzpatrick, a four-term congressman and former FBI agent, represents a district based in Bucks County that Democrat Joe Biden carried in the 2020 presidential election.
He defeated Democrat Ashley Ehasz, a retired Army helicopter pilot who lost to Fitzpatrick by nearly 10 percentage points in 2022. The Associated Press declared Fitzpatrick the winner at 1:23 a.m. EST.
Fitzpatrick was just one of 16 Republicans running for reelection in a district carried by Biden in 2020. But Fitzpatrick, who took over the seat from his late brother, has a potent winning formula that has included his family’s name recognition and inroads into traditional Democratic voting districts.
He was endorsed by top-tier labor unions, ran a digital ad calling himself the “No. 1 most bipartisan congressman” and contended that he backs abortion rights, despite Ehasz’s contentions otherwise.
7th District
Three-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Susan Wild is facing state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in an eastern Pennsylvania district around Allentown.
Wild, a former city government lawyer, won by fewer than 2 points in 2022 and is a perennial target for Republicans. Democrats hold a slight registration advantage in a district that includes fast-growing suburbs and rural areas that span anthracite coal country.
8th District
Six-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright is trying to defeat Rob Bresnahan, a first-time candidate and developer who runs a family construction company in the northeastern Pennsylvania district.
Although the Associated Press had not yet called the race, Bresnahan claimed victory early Wednesday morning.
The district supported Trump in 2020's presidential election, making Cartwright just one of five Democrats nationally running for reelection in a Trump district.
Democrats hold a slight registration advantage in the district, which is anchored by Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, the city where President Joe Biden was born and that played prominently into his campaigns.
10th District
Six-term Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry is being challenged by Janelle Stelson, a longtime local TV news anchor who is a Republican-turned-Democrat.
Perry was chairman of the Freedom Caucus, a hardline faction of conservatives and was the only lawmaker to have his cellphone seized by FBI agents investigating the web of Trump loyalists who were central to his bid to remain in power in 2020. Perry has not been charged with a crime.
Stelson has her own baggage: She doesn’t live in the Republican-leaning district, which includes the cities of Harrisburg and York, surrounded by deep-red exurbs, rolling farm country and fast-growing suburbs. Still, she has relentlessly attacked Perry over his opposition to abortion rights and his role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
17th District
Freshman Democratic Rep. Chris Deluzio won reelection to a U.S. House seat representing Pennsylvania on Wednesday, defeating Republican state lawmaker Rob Mercuri.
Deluzio is a former Navy officer and lawyer who worked on voting rights and election security.
Mercuri is an Army veteran who represents part of Allegheny County in the state House of Representatives.
Deluzio’s district, which Democrat Joe Biden won in 2020, includes Pittsburgh’s western suburbs and extends through Ohio River steel towns and Beaver County to Ohio’s eastern border. The Associated Press declared Deluzio the winner at 12:19 a.m. EST.
Marc Levy, The Associated Press