U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon defeated challenger David Galluch during Tuesday's election to win a third term representing Pennsylvania's 5th Congressional District, which covers Delaware County, pieces of Montgomery and Chester counties and a sliver of South Philadelphia.
The AP called the race at 2:01 a.m. Wednesday. At the time, Scanlon held 65.77% of the vote with 62.04% of precincts reporting. Galluch had captured 34.23%.
Election results are unofficial until certified by the Pennsylvania secretary of state later this month.
Scanlon, a Democrat, was first elected in 2018, when a record four women won U.S. House seats in Pennsylvania. She emphasized voting rights, sponsoring bills aimed at protecting poll workers and expanding absentee voting. She also focused on the issues of data privacy and student loan reform.
Scanlon pitched herself as a successful negotiator who brought down health care costs and secured jobs in her district. She pledged to "protect essential American freedoms, including the right to vote in free and fair elections, the right of women and their families to obtain contraception and reproductive health care and the right to be free from gun violence."
Originally from upstate New York, Scanlon lives in Swarthmore. Her three-decade legal career included a clerkship with the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, a staff position at the Education Law Center of Pennsylvania and pro bono counsel at Ballard Spahr LLP. Scanlon made headlines earlier this year when she was carjacked at gunpoint near FDR Park in South Philly. She was unharmed, and her vehicle was recovered by Delaware State Police later that night.
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Galluch, a Navy veteran and first-time candidate for public office, seeks to provide an outsider approach to Washington, rein in government spending and restrict immigration.
The Republican was deployed twice as part of his military service, and was trained in explosive device disposal. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of Cambridge, where he earned a masters degree in philosophy. One of his biggest priorities is reforming Veterans Affairs.
Galluch supports school choice, American-made manufacturing and affordable health care. He supports abortion rights only in cases of rape, incest or threat to the life of the mother. He believes that marijuana legalization should be left to individual states, and that the federal law criminalizing its possession should be repealed.