Going into Tuesday’s midterm election, there were no women among the Pennsylvania congressional delegation’s 18 members. Democrat Susan Wild, an Allentown attorney, will become the first female U.S. House member ever from the Lehigh Valley.

For Wild, former solicitor for the City of Allentown and a member of the Gross McGinley Law Firm, it was a case of mostly good news but some not so good.

She won the regular election in the newly realigned 7th Congressional District (Lehigh and Northampton counties and Eldred and Ross townships in Monroe County) but lost the special election in the former 15th District, the seat held by Republican Charlie Dent, who resigned from Congress in May.

Winning about 53 percent of the vote, Wild defeated Republican Lehigh County Commissioners’ Chairman Marty Nothstein, an Olympic gold medal cycling champion who aligned himself with President Donald Trump, by about 25,000 votes. A third candidate was former media professional Libertarian Tim Silfies, who received about 3 percent of the vote.

Nothstein won the former 15th District seat, which includes Lehigh and parts of Northampton, Berks, Lebanon and Dauphin counties, besting Wild by about 1,100 votes. These counties have been without a member of the U.S. House for more than five months since Dent resigned.

This means that Nothstein will be sworn in immediately and serve about six weeks to fill Dent’s unexpired term and until the new members of Congress, including Wild, are seated in early January. In conceding defeat to Wild for the full two-year seat, Nothstein said he will do his “very best” to serve with distinction until the end of the year.

In a speech that called for joining together, Wild said, “Our independence helps explain why our district has voted for Democrats and Republicans over the years. Our community understands that democracy is not just about voting in an election.”

In a statement following her win, Wild said that she will use her skills as a tough negotiator in the courtroom to fight for working-class families. “I’ll use these same skills and experience to produce results for the 7th District. This is the type of advocacy Pennsylvanians deserve to have in Washington.”

She also tweeted, “This is our year, and it’s time for us to rally together and get to work. We got this.”

Wild will be joined by three other Eastern Pennsylvania women who won congressional seats Tuesday — Madeleine Dean in the 4th District, Mary Gay Scanlon in the 5th District and Chrissy Houlahan in the 6th District. All of the districts are in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Heavy voter turnout

Despite heavy morning rains, there was high turnout throughout the greater Lehigh Valley area as voters flocked to the polls, in some cases standing in the rain for more than 30 minutes. Long lines were reported in a number of polling places in Lehigh and Northampton counties.

The weather improved throughout the afternoon and evening. Many area residents reported seeing a beautiful rainbow as the rain ended and the skies brightened.

The day was marred by the death of an 83-year-old woman who was struck by a minivan as she walked with a cane in the parking lot of the Forks Township, Northampton County, Community Center, which served as a polling place.

Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim identified the victim as Marlene Raub of Forks Township. He ruled the death accidental and was told that Raub had just left the polling place.

Voters had a fairly sparse ballot this year with just five decisions to make — governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, state Senate and state House of Representatives.

Incumbents get the win

Incumbents won all of the contested state senate and state representative races.

The main area state Senate race was in the 16th District (part of Lehigh County) where incumbent Republican Pat Browne of Allentown won in a surprisingly close race over Democrat Mark Pinsley of South Whitehall Township. Browne won by about 2,600 votes with 51 percent of the vote.

Calling himself the architect of Allentown’s resurgence, Browne, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was re-elected to his fourth four-year term in the state’s upper house, but it was a tough battle.

The Appropriations Committee, one of the most powerful of the Senate’s standing committees, reviews legislation for its fiscal impact and plays a lead role in crafting the annual state budget.

Pinsley is a commissioner on the South Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners. He wound up with about 49 percent of the votes. Lisa Boscola, incumbent Democrat, who represents the 18th District (parts of Lehigh and Northampton counties) was unopposed for another four-year term.

All state House of Representatives incumbents were re-elected. They include: Republican Justin Simmons over Democrat Andy Lee, 54-46 percent in the 131st District (parts of Lehigh, Northampton and Montgomery counties), Republican Ryan Mackenzie over Democrat Tom Applebach, 57-43 percent in the 134th District (parts of Lehigh and Berks counties), Republican Joe Emrick over Democrat Amy Cozze and Libertarian Ed Reagan, 56-43-1 percent in the 137th District (part of Northampton County), Republican Marcia Hahn over Democrat Dean Donaher and Libertarian Jake Towne, 56-42-2 percent in the 138th District (part of Northampton County), Republican Zach Mako over Democrat Jason Ruff, 57-43 percent in the 183rd District (parts of Lehigh and Northampton counties) and Republican Gary Day over Democrat Michael Blichar Jr., 60-40 percent in the 187th District.

Mako mentioned property taxes remaining a big issue in the district, and cited his job creation and infrastructure.

“I did what I said I was going to do when I went out to Harrisburg, I think people recognized that, and appreciated that,” Mako said. “And I appreciate them allowing me to represent them for a second term.

“I look forward to serving people of the 183rd again, just as I did last year. And I am always accessible, my doors are always open, if anyone has a question, give a call and I’ll get back to them.”

Both counties favored incumbent Democrats, Gov. Tom Wolf and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey. In Lehigh, Wolf had 61 percent of the vote compared to Republican Scott Wagner’s 37 percent on his way to his second and final four-term term.

In Northampton Wolf had 57 percent to Wagner’s 41 percent. Casey carried Lehigh County with 58 percent to Republican Lou Barletta’s 50 percent, while in Northampton County, Casey received 54 percent to Barletta’s 44 percent. The rest of the votes went to minor third-party candidates.

Ballot question

Northampton County voters overwhelmingly approved the only ballot question in the area with 76 percent voting “yes” on the question of whether the county controller must devote full time to the office.

Democrats enjoy a comfortable voter registration edge in both counties. According to the Department of State, in Lehigh County, 113,076 Democrats and 79,373 Republicans registered to vote as of Oct. 29. In Northampton County, the Democrats led 96,385 to 73,559.

While the number of registered voters for Tuesday’s election were about 3,300 fewer in Lehigh and about 2,100 fewer in Northampton compared to 2016, a presidential election year, the number compared to the last midterm election was striking. There were 13,000 more registered voters this year compared to 2014 in Lehigh and almost 14,000 more in Northampton.

Terry Ahner contributed to this report.