The Democratic candidates representing the area surrounding Main Campus won all contests in Tuesday’s highly-anticipated midterm elections.
Democratic candidates won the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race, U.S. Senate seats, 181st District race for the Pennsylvania General Assembly and 2nd and 3rd district Congressional seats.
Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey defeated his Republican opponent Lou Barletta, with 56.6 percent of the vote. In Philadelphia county, 86.6 percent of voters chose Casey.
Incumbent Gov. Tom Wolf and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman received 57.7 percent of the state’s vote, while Republican candidate Scott Wagner and his running-mate Jeff Bartos fell short with 40.8 percent. About 87 percent of Philadelphians voted for Wolf in the county.
Democrat Rep. Dwight Evans for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional district won over his opponent, Republican candidate Bryan Leib. Evans won 93.3 percent of vote for the 3rd district, which encompasses the Temple area west of North Broad Street and parts of West Philadelphia.
Democrat Rep. Brendan Boyle for the 2nd Congressional district, representing Main Campus east of Broad Street and parts of North Philadelphia won also. He claimed 78.8 percent of the vote over Republican candidate David Torres.
Malcolm Kenyatta, a 2012 public communication alumnus, won 95 percent of the district’s vote over Republican candidate Milton Street. Kenyatta will replace the retiring state Rep. Curtis Thomas for the 181st district in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
Nearly 70 percent of Philadelphia voters also approved a ballot measure to issue a $181 million bond to fund transit, parks and municipal buildings. The bonds will serve as part of Rebuild, a city-wide initiative to improve recreation centers and libraries.
As Republican candidates gained several U.S. Senate seats Tuesday, the party ceded its majority in the House of Representatives to Democrats for the first time in eight years.
Democrats gained more than 24 seats from the Republicans in the House.
Temple’s Political Science Society hosted an midterms watch party in Gladfelter Hall Tuesday night. About 35 students with varying political views attended.
With estimates by news organizations fluctuating as the night went on, Republican-leaning junior political science major Anthony Amato said he was enthusiastic when the Republican candidates won races in Indiana and Texas.
“With the media coverage, they haven’t realized that the silent majority is with the president,” Amato said.
Anastasia Dovbik, a management information systems major, said she voted for Republican candidates on Tuesday because of the party’s economic policies.
“I fear socialism a lot,” Dovbik said. “I see Europe going in that direction. I come from Belarus, I also lived in France, Denmark. …I’m afraid that what certain candidates say can be a threat.”
Julian Ortiz, a sophomore media studies and production major, said he thinks the Democratic majority in the house was a response to President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies that have come under fire by the Democratic party since his inauguration.
“Trump is the best thing that ever happened to Democrats,” Ortiz added.
Going into the results watch party, Anne Reisenwitz, a junior political science and Spanish major and president of PSSOC, said there was potential to flip the House, but not the Senate.
“That same [Democratic] optimism is what got Trump elected in 2016,” she said.
Reisenwitz thought reactions to the election results were mixed.
“Some people were happy, some people were upset,” Reisenwitz said after the event. “Everyone was surprised either way.”
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