Following the death of longtime incumbent state Rep. Tony DeLuca, an Allegheny County district has its first nominee to fill that seat.

Joe McAndrew of Penn Hills secured the Democratic nomination after winning a nominating session on Sunday. McAndrew prevailed among eight candidates to replace DeLuca, who passed away in October but won the election in November anyway.

District 32 includes Oakmont, Penn Hills, Verona and a section of Plum.

McAndrew is a former executive director of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee and worked on the 2022 campaign for Congressman-elect Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall. He has experience in Harrisburg and worked for former Democratic House Minority Leader Frank Dermody from 2012-14.

He said it is imperative that Democrats win the seat so that it is possible for Democrats to win control of the state House.

“We need a Democrat to win this seat, and we need to make sure we are doing everything we can to continue to do that,” said McAndrew. “This nomination means I am ready to put on walking shoes and start hitting doors.”

Although Democrats won 102 state House elections during the November elections to Republicans 101, the Democrats currently only hold 99 seats because of DeLuca’s death, as well as Austin Davis and Summer Lee resigning their seats to take higher office.

Democrats are favored in District 32 and the other Allegheny County special elections to replace Davis and Lee. Winning those three seats will give the Democrats a one-seat majority in the state House.

McAndrew said District 32 is the most important seat in the state House, and said Democrats’ goal of controlling the chamber will be predicated mostly on informing Democratic voters about the upcoming special elections and getting them to turnout and vote.

He said 68% of the district’s voters backed Governor-elect Josh Shapiro and that having a Democrat-controlled state House will be instrumental in getting Shapiro’s agenda passed. McAndrew believes he can help match Shapiro’s margins in District 32.

“We can easily do that again, we just have to make sure to get people out the door to vote,” he said.

McAndrew added not doing so would result in Republican control, which he called “radical” and would follow the agenda of Republican candidates Doug Mastriano and Carrie DelRosso.

“We don’t want to see a radicalized version of A Mastriano-DelRosso ticket in the house of representatives,” said McAndrew. “The Republican agenda is radical, and any Republican they put through for this election will be radical.”

Sunday’s nominating session was the first time the Allegheny County Democratic Committee utilized a rank-choice voting system. Only Democratic committee members that live within District 32 could vote, and 79 votes were cast initially with less votes counted as candidates were eliminated through the tabulation process.

McAndrew won the most votes in each round of voting, but didn’t receive an outright majority until the fifth round, when he received 47 votes to Penn Hills Mayor Pauline Calabrese’s 30, according to WESA.

Initially, the special elections were scheduled for Feb. 7. House GOP leader Bryan Cutler filed a lawsuit Monday attempting to halt the special elections. Cutler is arguing that the Democrats don’t have the authority to set the election dates, even though Cutler attempted to set the District 32 special election for Feb. 7.

Regardless, Republicans are set to select their nominee for District 32 and the other Allegheny County special elections on Dec. 17.

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