In a devastating blow to the President and his party, Democrats have scored yet another victory in a district that Trump and the Republican Party had previously won.
Democratic candidate Helen Tai, the former Solebury supervisor chairwoman, defeated Republican Wendi Thomas in a race to represent Pennsylvania’s 178th House district, flipping the seat to Democratic control for the first time since 1983. The seat was vacated by former Republican state Rep. Scott Petri who resigned at the end of 2017.
BREAKING: @giveemhelentai has won the special election for HD178 for the Pennsylvania House, flipping the seat from red to blue. Congratulations, Helen! pic.twitter.com/Gurl8uoRZA
— Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (@TheDLCC) May 16, 2018
Underscoring the victory was the fact that this suburban Philadelphia district voted 56-43 for Mitt Romney and voted 50-47 for Trump.
Watch Tai’s victory speech here:
The victory is only the latest in a wave of stunning Democratic success stories around the country. Thus far, Democrats have unseated Republicans in a vast number of what were thought to be unwinnable races. Aside from flipping New Jersey’s and winning Virginia’s gubernatorial races, Democrats also earned a historic victory electing Doug Jones to the Alabama Senate, the first time that a Democrat has won in that state in a quarter century.
Democrats have also picked up a slew of seats in other races around the country.
Since Trump’s inauguration, Democrats have flipped 42 seats from red to blue. Republicans have only flipped three. In total, Democrats have seen flipped seats in 13 states: Georgia, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Washington, Wisconsin, Virginia, Missouri, Kentucky, Connecticut, Florida and now Pennsylvania. Even in the most solidly red districts, Democrats are overperforming Trump’s numbers by double digits.
As the Trump administration and its Republican enablers in Congress continue their assault on the will of the American people – from healthcare to tax cuts for the rich to net neutrality to immigration to gun reform – voters across the country are delivering a serious message to the White House, one race at a time.
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