Big win
Donald Trump certainly had the best night of any political candidate in Tuesday’s election. But not far behind was U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Hollidaysburg, who easily defeated Art Halvorson 63.4 percent to 36.65 percent in the race for the seat in the 9th Congressional District.
It was Shuster’s eighth straight election victory since being elected to Congress in 2001.
In fact, Shuster did so well that he won 11 of the 12 counties in the district. The only county he lost was Westmoreland County and that was by a slim margin of 2,072-1,776. Shuster racked up huge wins in the district, winning Fayette County by 62 percent, Greene County by 68 percent and Washington County by 57 percent.
Overall, his percentages ranged from 80 percent in Somerset County to 54 percent in Indiana County.
The margin of victory was somewhat surprising given that Halvorson came within 1,227 votes of beating Shuster in the primary last spring. Shuster was able to win thanks to the support of voters in Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties, who backed him by a margin of 10,945 to 4,987. Shuster’s biggest margin of victory came in Fayette County ,where he beat Halvorson 7,336-3,413.
Overall, Shuster won seven of the 12 counties in the primary, winning Somerset, Huntington and Cambria counties in addition to the four local counties with Halvorson taking Bedford, Blair, Franklin, Indiana and Fulton counties.
After losing in the GOP primary, Halvorson secured the Democratic nomination via the write-in route. However, Halvorson was never a fit as a Democrat. A tea party Republican, Halvorson had run to right of Shuster. He also had to contend with the write-in campaign of Uniontown pyschologist Adam Sedlock who touted himself as the only real Democrat in the race.
Democrats in the district obviously rejected his candidacy supporting Shuster in some rather large numbers. It remains to be seen how many votes Sedlock received as his totals won’t be known until the ballots are officially counted.
Shuster’s victory had to give him a large measure of satisfaction as Halvorson had launched many personal attacks against the congressman. It began when Halvorson first ran against Shuster in 2014 and continued this year in both the general and primary elections. Halvorson even attacked Shuster’s father, Bud, who held the seat for a number of years prior to Bill being elected.
After Tuesday’s election, Shuster praised voters for rejecting the “nasty” campaign waged by Halvorson.
“This election should have been about Republicans coming together,” said Shuster. “My opponent tried to divide the party for his own selfish interests.”
It will be interesting to see what role Shuster plays as chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the Trump administration. Trump talked repeatedly in the presidential campaign about the need to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, including its highways and bridges. If those plans develop, Shuster, a staunch Trump supporter, should be in position to direct some of that funding to projects in this area. Converting Route 21 into a modern four-lane highway could be one such project.
Considering the massive support local residents gave to Trump and Shuster on Tuesday, it would seem the least they could do would be to return the favor.