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Joyce wins PA-13 Republican Primary

John Joyce has won the Republican Primary for Pennsylvania’s 13th Congressional District.

Joyce was victorious with 21% of the vote, with eight candidates splitting the vote.

His competitors included state Senator John Eichelberger (19%), state Rep. Steve Bloom (18%), retired Army Colonel Doug Mastriano (15%), Coast Guard veteran Art Halvorson (15%), U.S. Army veteran Travis Schooley (4%), businessman Bernie Washabaugh (2%), and avid Trump supporter Ben Hornberger (1%).

This was Halvorson’s third attempt to win the Republican primary for the district, losing twice previously to retiring Congressman Bill Shuster.  

Joyce declared victory saying “we did it.”

 

Joyce won the seat after receiving the backing of Shuster, and launching an ad campaign that filled the airwaves in the district with his name.  

Joyce will go on to face Democrat Brent Ottoway, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.

13 Responses

  1. The good voters of central PA have spoken. Congrats to the winner, John Joyce.

  2. The Shuster dynasty lives on. The results show the need for some sort of runoff like in southern states, where if no one gets 50 percent the top two move on. Winning with 22 percent seems a little undemocratic.

    1. Agreed. It’s just not right that he gets the nomination when 78% voted for someone else.

  3. Give me a million dollars in dark money to send out negative mailers and air negative commercials about my opponents and I could probably win too. Joyce will be no different than Shuster- he’ll talk a good game about conservative principles but then just do whatever he’s told by leadership and never actually accomplish anything. And then about 20 years from now, he’ll find a way to hand the seat off to his lobbyist son.

    The swamp won this race.

    1. *eye roll* negative campaigning is effective. It’s only sleazy if it’s untrue. I love when people complain because they ran crappy campaigns or were a crappy candidate and chalk it all up to the establishment or the “swamp” (which is a total sham of a word by now can we all stop using it?). Guess what? The establishment is the establishment because they know what the hell they are doing. Establishment just means winners.

  4. I agree with Central PA Dem’s assessement on the campaign. Eich and Bloom did not have the funds to get on TV early and Halvorson fed into the negative ads by not being likable.

  5. Wait, I forgot I can’t support the porn stache because I am writing in me for the November’s general election

  6. Congrats John on your awesome porn stache. I will support the stache in the November’s general election.

  7. This was a good lesson in politics for anyone running in a crowded primary for an open seat. First, you have to have $$$, then get up on the air early and often with a positive message about yourself. I really thought Eichelberger had the name recognition that would put him in obvious position to win, but he was very late getting on TV. And if you saw Halvorson on TV last night after the results, he was just a sour puss loser. Granted, it appears that Shuster and his machine intervened behind the scenes, but Eichelberger, Bloom and Halvorson could have spent money and got on TV early too and they didn’t. And who was the other guy that I think pulled in ahead of Halvorson and what is his claim to fame that he got so many votes?

    All that said, I’m not sold that we need a conservative doctor like Joyce in Congress. He should have the proper perspective to do something about affordable health care, but it seems like when we get these conservative doctors elected, they just want to go back to the status quo of protecting the high profit corporate insurance structure (I believe they like to call it the FREE MARKET), rather than getting affordable quality coverage for the people. But we’ll see.

    1. The irony, as always, being that the ACA is a market-based solution, and pretty much the only market-based solution capable of achieving near universal coverage.

      1. Interesting point, but do you agree that the main reason the ACA, like it or not, is failing OR not succeeding, is because 2 revenue components known as the individual mandate and the Cadillac tax have been waived. If all the revenue components would have been implemented, what would have been the status of the program now?

  8. congrats john on winning the primary and I will support you for the November’s general election.

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