Kevin Strouse has won the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania’s 8th congressional district and has earned the honor of facing Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick in November.
Strouse, an ex-Army Ranger who served in Afghanistan and Iraq before working for the CIA, competed for the nomination against chemist and businesswoman Shaughnessy Naughton.
Altogether, he received 18,428 or 51.13% of the vote. Naughton, meanwhile compiled 17,610 votes or 48.87%. As of now, all 342 precincts are in.
The Democratic nominee was an early DCCC recruit and has been the beneficiary of support from some of the party’s leadership. Strouse also held the monetary advantage, which allowed him to be the only candidate on TV.
The 8th congressional district consists of all of Bucks County as well as parts of upper Montgomery County. Fitzpatrick represented the district from 2005 to 2007 and from 2011 until the present day.
3 Responses
Yeah good job flipping oh wait naughton didn’t win
I was flipping between Strouse and Naughton myself the last few moments but went with Naughton. Few reasons:
1) Stouse will be labeled a Murphy clone and people will not be able to differentiate the two. Of course they are different but your average voter who doesn’t really think or care to learn about these races will do just that.
2) Naughton is not, or at least appears not to be, an uber liberal like Bockvar. She owns a local business.
3) Voters will be able to draw a favorable contrast between her and Fitz more easily than they would Strouse and Fitz.
4) She didn’t just move into the district and seemed like she was “planted” by the DCCC, even though Naughton lives in Phila.
I think Strouse is smarter than Murphy but regardless who won last night, Fitz will win 57-43 instead of maybe 54-46 vs Naughton.
This was a very close race. Very early on (last year) I thought Strouse was a shoe-in. Then Shaughnessy came on strong, raised money, built momentum, and got some great endorsements.
The race was too close to call, and wound up being one of the closest in the state.