Olsommer wins primary, special election

Pennsylvania’s primary/special election night concluded with few surprises for those watching the race to fill the vacancy left by Republican Joe Adams in District 139, who resigned earlier this year citing family health issues.

Republican Jeff Olsommer easily secured the Republican nomination for Adams’ seat. He ran against Matthew Contreras. According to the state’s preliminary numbers, Olsommer received 69.39% of the vote, or 4,975 votes. Contreras received 30.61% of the vote, or 2,195 votes.

Robin Skibber, who ran unopposed on the Democratic line for District 139, received 3,957 votes. She and Olsommer will now compete for the seat during the November 5 general election.

Special election

For the special election to fulfill the remainder of Adams’ term this year, both Olsommer and Skibber were vying for the seat. Olsommer won 60.32% of the vote, or 7,140 votes, while Skibber won 39.68%, or 4,696 votes.

Although both candidates are from Wayne County, Skibber had more success in Pike County, where she was formerly the director of the Pike County Area Agency on Aging. Here’s the county breakdown: for Pike, Olsommer had 3,968 votes to Skibber’s 3,196; in Wayne, Olsommer had 3,172 votes to Skibber’s 1,500.

Other county contests

The candidates running on the Republican and Democratic lines for Congressional District 8, which serves all of Pike County, and the 189th Assembly District, which serves a portion of the county (Delaware, Lehman, and Porter), did not have any primary contenders, thus each candidate will go on to the general election. They are as follows:

189th Assembly District

Democratic candidate: Tarah Probst (incumbent)

Republican candidate: Lisa VanWhy

Congressional District 8

Democratic candidate: Matt Cartwright (incumbent)

Republican candidate: Rob Bresnahan Jr.