Everyone knows 2026 is an important election year.
It is a midterm, carrying the familiar post-presidential pressure that takes the political temperature of the country.
In Pennsylvania, it is also a gubernatorial year. State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, the presumptive Republican nominee, recently secured an endorsement from President Donald Trump, and incumbent Gov. Josh Shapiro is drawing national attention as he promotes his new memoir and becomes the subject of increased media scrutiny.
Some Pennsylvania voters won’t have to wait for the May primaries or the November general election. Five seats in the state House are vacant. Special elections will fill those in the coming weeks.
One of those vacancies is closer to home.
Voters in Allegheny County will head to the polls Feb. 24 to fill the seat left open when former state Rep. Dan Miller was elected to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas. That election will determine who represents the district in Harrisburg for the remainder of the term — a decision that will be made months before most voters are focused on 2026.
These seats matter because of the seesaw nature of the state House of Representatives. The chamber has historically tilted Republican, but in recent years it has operated under a hair-thin Democratic majority. With five seats vacant, Democrats hold a 200-198 edge.
In a chamber this closely divided, even a single seat can change the math.
Special elections tend to draw low turnout. They do not come with the saturation coverage of a presidential year or the intense focus Pennsylvania saw during the Supreme Court retention vote in 2025. They are confined to a small number of legislative districts, limiting the number of voters involved — and making them easy to overlook as people go about their daily lives.
That combination can give a small number of voters outsized influence over the balance of power in Harrisburg. This is still democracy doing its work — just without the bright lights that usually signal when attention is required.
Special elections rarely feel momentous. They arrive quietly, involve fewer voters and pass without the fanfare that signals civic urgency.
But in a state where control of the House is this close, they matter all the same. Paying attention does not begin in May or peak in November. Sometimes it starts earlier, in a single district, with voters who show up when the spotlight is dim.
