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Democrats have declared victory in a Pennsylvania state House seat that Republicans held for nearly 30 years.

In a special election for the state House’s 12th District seat, Democrat Brandon Dukes is leading over Republican Scott Timko by less than 100 votes, 8,434 to 8,346, with 99 percent of votes counted.

Dukes told the local Cranberry Eagle Tuesday night, “I’m ecstatic. I’m shocked.”

“I’m still processing this. We just flipped a Trump plus-18 seat, and we flipped a red seat that’s been red for almost 30 years. We made history,” Dukes said.

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[-] AgentSeven@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 hour ago

Great, now do something with it.

[-] BigMacHole 11 points 2 hours ago

This is FRAUD! UNLESS the Republican ends up squeaking by with a SINGLE vote then it's UNADULTERATED PROOF that people LOVE Trump's Policies!

-LITERALLY Republicans!

[-] yakko@feddit.uk 44 points 4 hours ago

Hopefully this is premonitory of the midterms.

[-] DrakeAlbrecht@lemmy.world 23 points 4 hours ago

We just told Republicans that they need to cheat more.

[-] altphoto@lemmy.today 7 points 3 hours ago

I put my ballot in the mail 2 days after I got it. I'll have to do it same day next time.

[-] chuckleslord@lemmy.world 9 points 2 hours ago

Where possible, bring it directly to its destination rather than mailing it. Votes are counted based on post date, and that is now recorded once it passes through a centralized facility, rather than when it arrives at the local office. USPS is a rat fucking enterprise, now

[-] CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 points 54 minutes ago

This is exactly why I tell people to just use drop boxes instead. In my county, they're everywhere and usually a walkable distance away. They're picked up by the election commission on a daily basis.

[-] hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip 12 points 4 hours ago

I choose to expect the worst, hope for the best.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 4 points 3 hours ago

Okay there's one thing I don't understand here: Over the past year we've heard about Democrats winning this or that special election, so how do Republicans still have a majority?

[-] SippyCup@lemmy.world 21 points 3 hours ago

This is a state house seat not a federal seat

[-] joe@lemmy.world 13 points 3 hours ago

Not every special election is for a US seat, some are for state seats.

Also, the GOP's majority has been shrinking.

[-] SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

Lots of fuckery in the general elections.

[-] theand@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Yeah, just watch. Recount, recount, the voiding of some dem votes, law suit, Supreme Court deliberation and ruling and BAM! It's Republican.

[-] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Tight margins. Really shit turnout. 65k people in this district. 43k voters in generals and only 17k for vacant special election.

[-] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 13 points 4 hours ago

Hey, with the current dumpster fire we'll take what we can get. At the very least it means that independents and Democrats are far more motivated than MAGA Republicans.

this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2026
221 points (100.0% liked)

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