Smith falls short in primary write-in effort for 22nd District
Smith falls short in primary write-in effort for 22nd District
Check out congressional, state House and other official primary results from Lehigh Valley
Counties recently certified results of the April 23 primary election, and one question in a Lehigh County state House race has been resolved.
Robert E. Smith Jr., who waged a last-minute write-in campaign for the Republican nomination in the 22nd District, did not garner enough votes for his party’s nomination and will not be on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Smith received only 66 votes, well short of the 300 needed for the nomination. That means Democratic state Rep. Joshua Siegel has no Republican opponent. In 2022, Siegel had nearly 64% of the vote in defeating Smith in the general election. The district comprises parts of Allentown and Salisbury Township.
In the 7th Congressional District Republican primary, state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie and the other two candidates picked up a small number of votes from the unofficial returns, but the primary night results remained unchanged: Mackenzie easily won the GOP nomination with 42.6% of the vote and will face three-term incumbent Democrat Susan Wild in the Nov. 5 election. The district comprises all of Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton counties and a small portion of Monroe.
The official results for the other Lehigh Valley primary contests, with winners highlighted in bold:
131st District Democratic primary
Meriam Sabih – 4,171
Jay Santos – 1,593
Sabih, a Democratic volunteer and committee person from Upper Saucon Township, is making her first bid for office. In November, she will face Republican Milou Mackenzie of Lower Saucon Township who is seeking reelection to a third term.
The district covers portions of three counties: Lehigh (Lower Milford, Upper Milford and Upper Saucon townships and Coopersburg with part of Salisbury Township); Montgomery (Marlborough, Salford and Upper Hanover townships and East Greenville, Green Lane, Pennsburg and Red Hill); and Northampton (part of Lower Saucon Township).
136th District Democratic primary
Robert Freeman – 4,015
Taiba Sultana – 1,167
Freeman of Easton had his first primary challenge ever this spring. He has no Republican opposition in November as he seeks his 14th term in the state House.
District: Easton, Wilson, parts of Palmer and Lower Saucon townships, and all of Williams Township, Glendon, West Easton, Freemansburg and Hellertown.
183rd District Republican primary
Zachary Mako – 5,233
Zachari Halkias – 2,000
Mako of Lehigh Township is seeking a fifth term. He will face Democrat Joe Lenzi, a political newcomer from Northampton, who was unopposed in his primary.
District: Lehigh County (Slatington and Lowhill and North Whitehall townships) and Northampton County (Lehigh, Moore, Allen and East Allen townships and Walnutport, Northampton and North Catasauqua).
Other Lehigh Valley House districts
There were no primary contests for the other Lehigh Valley state House districts, but several incumbents have challengers in the fall election.
135th District
Democrat Steve Samuelson of Bethlehem, who was first elected to the state House in 1998, was unopposed in the primary and has no Republican opponent in November.
District: Northampton County portion of Bethlehem and part of Hanover Township (Northampton County).
137th District
The contest to represent the district is a rematch from 2022 when Republican incumbent Joe Emrick defeated political novice Anna Thomas, a Democrat from Bethlehem Township, by 703 votes. Emrick of Upper Nazareth Township was first elected to the state House in 2010.
District: Nazareth, Tatamy and the townships of Bethlehem, Lower Nazareth and Upper Nazareth along with portions of Hanover and Palmer townships.
138th District
Republican Ann Flood of Moore Township is seeking a third term and will face Democrat Jared Bitting of Bushkill Township in November.
District: Bangor, Chapman, East Bangor, Pen Argyl, Portland, Roseto, Stockertown and Wind Gap, the townships of Bushkill, Forks, Lower Mount Bethel, Plainfield, Upper Mount Bethel and Washington with parts of Moore Township.
187th District
Republican Gary Day is seeking to return to the district he represented for seven terms until 2022 when he lost the GOP primary to fellow Republican state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, after redistricting pitted both incumbents against each other. With Mackenzie running for Congress this year, the 187th seat opened. Day of Heidelberg Township will face Democrat Stefanie Rafes of Lower Macungie Township.
District: Heidelberg, Lower Macungie, Lynn, Washington and Weisenberg townships, Alburtis, Macungie and part of Upper Macungie Township.
National political convention delegates
In the primary, voters also chose delegates for the national political conventions from their congressional districts.
In the 7th District, there was no delegate contest on the Democratic side, as seven candidates sought seven spots.
But Republican voters did have a choice, with four candidates vying for three spots at the Republican National Convention July 15-18 in Milwaukee.
The primary results, with the winners highlighted in bold, are:
Thomas J. Carroll, chair of the Lehigh Valley Tea Party and a 2020 delegate – 37,361.
Patrick Cubbage, an unsuccessful delegate and alternate delegate candidate in 2020 – 28,409.
Rochelle Marie Pasquariello, an unsuccessful delegate candidate in 2020 – 25,854.
Jacqueline Rivera, secretary of the Lehigh County Republican Committee – 21,447.
Republican voters also selected three alternate delegates. Only two candidates were on the ballot – Eve Cubbage and Robert E. Smith Jr. - and were elected as alternates. The third alternate spot was filled by Dean Browning, a longtime Lehigh County political figure, who collected 764 write-in votes.
The seven Democrats who will attend the Democratic National Convention Aug. 19-22 in Chicago are: Leslie M. Altieri, chair of Bethlehem Township, Freemansburg, Saucon Valley/Hellertown Democratic Committee; Carmen Bell, an officer in the Lehigh County Democratic Committee; Julian Alexander Guridy, who works for the state Senate; Aidan Levinson, a political consultant and 2020 delegate; Lori McFarland, chair of the Lehigh County Democratic Committee; Baron Vanderburg, director of the Northampton County Democratic Black Caucus; and Anne Wakabayashi, a political consultant.
Auditor General
In the statewide Democratic primary for auditor general, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta grabbed 64.5% of the vote in defeating Lehigh County Controller Mark PInsely (655,687-360,182).
But Pinsley led the vote count in his home turf of the Lehigh Valley.
Lehigh County
Kenyatta — 6,513
Pinsley — 19,998
Northampton County
Kenyatta — 8,926
Pinsley — 15,228