South Huntingdon carpenter is GOP nominee for 58th House special election

Westmoreland County Republicans selected a union carpenter making his first run for public office as the GOP’s candidate in a special election for the Pennsylvania State House 58th District seat.

Eric Davanzo, 43, of South Huntingdon was nominated Thursday night to run against Democrat Robert Prah in the March 17 special election to replace former state Rep. Justin Walsh, a Republican from Rostraver who resigned in December after winning a seat as a judge on Westmoreland County’s Common Pleas Court.

Walsh left office one year into his second term representing a district that, until his election in 2015, had for decades been held by Democrats.

The district includes Adamsburg, Arona, East Huntingdon, parts of Hempfield, Jeannette, Madison, Monessen, Mt. Pleasant, North Belle Vernon, Penn Borough, Rostraver, Sewickley, Smithton, South Huntingdon, Sutersville and West Newton.

“I want to make a difference for our blue collar workers because that’s what I am,” Davanzo said. “I felt it was just time to get involved because our conservative views are being challenged.”

Davanzo said he is a pro-life, pro-gun candidate who wants to focus on those issues as well as improving education and luring jobs to the district, he said.

The winner in the March election will serve out the remaining nine months of Walsh’s term.

The election comes six weeks before the April 28 primary in which Republicans and Democrats will nominate candidates to run for a full two-year term beginning in January 2020.

Both Davanzo and Prah said they intend to run in their party’s primary in April.