Lehigh Valley Politics and Election News

Northampton County officials will sort through nearly 4,000 provisional ballots. A significant portion of them came from the polling places serving Lehigh University and Lafayette College.

This week on Political Pulse, Tom and Chris talk about the outcomes of the general election — including Northampton County's significance in elections.

Since the start of the 20th century, Northampton County has backed the winning president all but three times. It lived up to its bellwether status again by narrowly backing President-elect Donald Trump over Kamala Harris in last week's 2024 presidential election.

Councilman Ed Zucal is set to be the first person to announce a challenge to Mayor Matt Tuerk's re-election bid.

None of the state House's 203 districts are changing hands in 2025. A race called on Friday for state Rep. Frank Burns, a Johnstown-area Democrat, gave Democrats a 102-101 margin and dashed Republican hopes of returning to control after two years in the minority.

After a polling place in South Bethlehem saw a six-hour wait to vote on Tuesday, Northampton County officials blame an unexpected jump in student turnout compared with 2020.

Beating U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is earth-shaking for Pennsylvania’s Democratic establishment. He's the state's longest-serving Democrat ever in the Senate. Casey had won six statewide general elections going back to 1996.

The Pennsylvania Senate contest between Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger David McCormick was inside the automatic recount threshold on Thursday morning.

State Sen. Jarrett Coleman challenged over 500 mail-in ballot applications of former Lehigh County voters. Coleman said in a text that he will pursue other ways to challenge how counties register voters living abroad.

State Rep. Joe Emrick won Pennsylvania's 137th House District in his battle against Democratic challenger Anna Thomas.

Kevin Dellicker, an intelligence officer in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, nearly upset former Lehigh County Commissioner Lisa Scheller in the 2022 GOP primary for Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District. He'll hope to defeat Democratic incumbent Susan Wild in next year's race.

Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure previously vetoed three measures that could create term limits for most county officials. On Thursday, county council overrode all three.

Maria Montero, a member of former Gov. Tom Corbett's administration, declared her candidacy for Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District with the FEC this week. She'll aim to unseat Democratic incumbent Susan Wild in the 2024 congressional race.

Sen. Bob Casey's reelection campaign announced he raised $4 million in the last quarter. The Scranton native will need the money if the 2024 race is anywhere near as expensive as the $167.2 million U.S. Senate campaign in 2022 ultimately won by John Fetterman.

Former state Sen. Pat Browne, one of Governor Josh Shapiro’s cabinet nominees, has officially become Secretary of Revenue. He represented the Lehigh Valley for nearly three decades.

Maria Shantz was one of a group of Republicans who signed a controversial pledge to create policies around gender and rejecting "wokeness."

According to the Lehigh County elections office, the candidate has moved out of the area.

A Pennsylvania state court on Tuesday rejected the latest Republican effort to throw out the presidential battleground state's broad mail-in voting law.

State Sen. Lisa Boscola said she will remain a Democrat but will promote the centrist ideology of the centrist Forward Party co-founded by former presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

Allentown voters could see five questions on their ballots in November if the proposals are approved.

Republicans leaders are working to increase the number of conservatives who vote by mail. But they may have their work cut out for them after years of attacking the mail-in ballot system.

Following a vote of the Northampton County Council Thursday night, three amendments to the county's home rule charter will appear on the November ballot.