Democrat John Inglis appears to have eked out a narrow victory in the party’s three-way primary for the State House 38th District seat — a race so close it took a week for vote totals to solidify.
An unofficial tally posted Wednesday by Allegheny County’s elections department showed Inglis leading by just 38 votes — out of more than 9,200 cast — over second-place finisher Victoria Schmotzer.
Inglis acknowledged the slim margins: “It was definitely a stressful night on election night,” he said. “Now is the first real sigh of relief I can give.
“When it comes down to that 38 votes, I feel like every little action, every little bit of support, mattered for my campaign,” he said, adding that his experience as an educator and West Mifflin Borough Council member may have set him apart from competitors.
Schmotzer did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday, and the outcome won’t be made official until the county Board of Elections certifies results on May 13. But Inglis appears poised to face Republican Stone Sobieralski, who was unopposed for his party’s nomination, this November.
At stake is a House seat that represents a swath of the Monongahela Valley as well as the adjoining suburbs of Baldwin and Whitehall. The seat has been held by state Rep. Nick Pisciottano, who chose not to run so he could seek the 45th Senate District seat being vacated by retiring incumbent Jim Brewster.
Pisciottano easily won his nomination Tuesday night, but the fight to succeed him took longer to decide.
Pisciottano backed Inglis, a West Mifflin School District educator, to replace him. Anthony “AJ” Olasz, also of West Mifflin, and Victoria Schmotzer, of Whitehall, also ran for the seat.
When the first and largest set of mail-in ballot results were posted shortly after 8 p.m. on primary night, Schmotzer had a narrow lead of 95 votes. The totals remained frozen for roughly two hours, even as results trickled in from elsewhere in the county. But as more in-person ballots came in, Inglis built a lead that by the end of the evening stood at 48 votes – too close to call.
Schmotzer gained some ground after military and provisional ballots were added to the total. But once those results were posted Wednesday afternoon, Inglis maintained a 38-vote lead over her, with Olasz trailing nearly 300 votes behind. And while the final vote count changed, the dynamic driving the race remained the same: Inglis and Olasz divided up West Mifflin and adjoining Mon Valley neighborhoods between them, while Schmotzer racked up big margins in the South Hills.
All three candidates had family ties to local politics: Inglis is Pisciottano’s cousin, Olasz is the grandson of former state Rep. Richard Olasz and the son of a magistrate district judge in the area, and Schmotzer’s father, Martin, once held an adjoining House seat and has long been active in Democratic politics.
Inglis said he hopes to work with his former opponents to keep the Democrats’ majority in the state House, and to reach beyond party lines to moderate Republicans.
“It's the job of someone in a position in government to represent everyone, not just those who voted for you and not just your party and not just people that are registered in a party,” he said.
Chris Potter contributed to this story.
