Bridgeville businessman Devlin Robinson leads Sewickley councilman in state Senate race

Bridgeville businessman and military veteran Devlin Robinson held a commanding lead late Tuesday in a Republican primary race for state Senate, according to unofficial tallies.

As of 6 a.m., Robinson had collected 58.1% of the votes counted in the 37th State Senate District race, compared to 41.9% for his opponent, Sewickley Council President Jeff Neff, unofficial returns from Allegheny County showed. No results were available from Washington County.

The district that includes southern and western suburbs in Allegheny County and Peters Township in Washington County.

Allegheny County officials were continuing to count votes late Tuesday, and more votes could be counted over the next week.

Gov. Tom Wolf issued an executive order Monday extending the deadline for Allegheny and five other counties to receive mail-in and absentee ballots by mail. They will be accepted through 5 p.m. June 9, as long as they were postmarked by June 2.

The GOP nominee will face Democratic incumbent Pam Iovino, who was unopposed Tuesday, in the November election.

Robinson said he is eager to serve in Harrisburg.

“I plan to be an independent voice. I will represent the people’s views, and that’s my only focus,” Robinson said in a phone interview.

“It was a different campaign this year,” Robinson added. “We stayed focused and ran a positive campaign and that’s something we can be proud of.”

Robinson earned an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School of Business and owns Veterans Medial Technology, a supplier of advanced surgical equipment to facilities across the country.

Neff, a property manager for Cadre Group LLC, has served as Sewickley’s council president for two years and previously spent 15 years as fire chief for Cochran Hose Company.

He came under fire in April after a photo surfaced of him posing with an alleged militia group at a Pittsburgh protest of Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus-related shutdown of non-life-sustaining businesses.

Neff said he wasn’t previously familiar with the Iron City Citizens Response Unit and had only attended the event out of concern for families who were out of work.