“Redistricting,” comes up every 10 years after the U.S. Census count, re-drawing state and federal lines for Senate and House of Representatives districts. The latest change took effect in 2022, affecting districts locally.

In the U.S. Congress, the biggest change impacted Carbon County, as it was shifted south toward the Lehigh Valley and joined Lehigh and Northampton counties in the 7th District. Elsewhere, in the 9th District, Schuylkill County joined 11 other counties in that realignment.

Meanwhile, changes in Pennsylvania’s districts resulted in all of Carbon County comprising the 122nd District of the House of Representatives.

Summit Hill borough was put back in the district after being in the 124th District for the past two years.

With regard to the Senate, the 29th District’s new boundaries put Carbon County in it, where previously it was in the 14th District.

All of the changes meant different officeholders will now represent different areas, and the November General Election had voters casting their ballots for candidates they previously had not seen.

Here is a quick look at the elections:

U.S. 7th District

The newly-aligned 7th Congressional District put Carbon County in the mix with Lehigh and Northampton counties, as well as parts of Monroe County.

Voters in Carbon and Monroe favored GOP candidate Lisa Scheller, president of Silberline Manufacturing Company, Hometown, but they weren’t enough to overcome the stronghold that Democratic Rep. Susan Wild had in the Lehigh Valley.

Scheller won Carbon County by nearly 10,000 votes – 15,377 to 5,856 – and had a 2-1 advantage in Eldred, Polk and Ross township of Monroe County – 3,526 to 1,736 – but Wild’s wins in Lehigh and Northampton were just too much for the challenger to overcome.

The congresswoman defeated Scheller by a difference of 72,795 to 61,987 in Lehigh County and 65,929 to 62,550 in Northampton County to win another two-year term of office.

U.S. 8th District

Riding advantages in his home county of Lackawanna and help from Monroe County voters, Democratic U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright defeated Republican challenger Jim Bognet of Hazleton in a rematch of the 2020 election that Cartwright also won.

Unofficial returns on the Pennsylvania Department of State website show Cartwright, a resident of Scranton, getting 144,547 votes to Bognet’s 137,945.

That realigned district includes all of Lackawanna, Pike and Wayne counties and parts of Luzerne and Monroe counties, including the townships of Barrett, Chestnuthill, Coolbaugh, Hamilton, Jackson, Middle Smithfield, Paradise, Pocono, Price, Smithfield, Stroud, Tobyhanna and Tunkhannock and the boroughs of Delaware Water Gap, East Stroudsburg, Mount Pocono, Stroudsburg and part of Ross.

U.S. 9th District

Rep. Dan Meuser, who is in his final year of representing Carbon County in the U.S. House of Representatives because of redistricting, won re-election to a two-year term in the reconfigured 9th District that encompasses 12 counties, including Schuylkill.

Meuser, a Republican, was a 206,125 to 89,635 winner over Democrat Amanda Waldman of Lycoming County.

Meuser won all 12 counties.

PA Senate seats

With Sen. Mario Scavello retiring, state Rep. Rosemary M. Brown, a Republican, won a promotion to that chamber, winning against Democrat Jennifer Anne Shukaitis.

Brown scored a 53,599 to 43,122 victory over Shukaitis in the district includes all of Monroe County and parts of Lackawanna and Wayne counties.

Meanwhile, Democrat Nicholas P. Miller and Republican Jarrett C. Coleman won races in the 14th and 16th districts, respectively.

Miller defeated Dean N. Browning, 45,944 to 40,202 and will follow Sen. John Yudichak, who retired and represented Carbon County before redistricting.

In a major upset in the May Primary, Coleman unseated longtime Sen. Patrick Browne. He then defeated Democrat Mark E. Pinsley in the 16th District balloting that includes parts of Bucks and Lehigh counties, which include Heidelberg and Lynn townships and Slatington Borough.

PA House winners

Five Republican state representatives - including Doyle Heffley of Carbon County - will be returning to Harrisburg to serve in the House of Representatives for the next two years and will be joined by two other GOP newcomers. The seven Republicans won their races in the General Election balloting.

Heffley defeated Richard Kost of Palmerton 18,589 to 7,152 to win the 122nd District seat that includes all of Carbon County.

With Rep. Jerry Knowles retiring in the 124th District, Republican Jamie Barton of East Brunswick Township defeated Democrat Tina Burns of Tamaqua 18,124 to 8,128.

Four GOP incumbents, Jack B. Rader Jr., Zach Mako, Ryan E. Mackenzie and Timothy Twardzik all were re-elected, and party member Dane Watro was also elected.

Rader defeated two candidates, Democrat Hope Christman and Libertarian Autumn Pangia, to win re-election in the 176th District. The four-term lawmaker had 13,981 votes, easily outdistancing Christman, 8,902, and Pangia, 1,229.

The district includes part of Monroe County, including all of Pleasant Valley School District.

Mako was unopposed in the district which includes part of Lehigh County, including Slatington, and parts of Northampton County, including Lehigh Township and Walnutport.

Mackenzie was also unchallenged in the 187th District, winning the primary against Rep. Gary Day, another incumbent who fell victim to the redistricting process that put he and Mackenzie in the same district. The district includes Washington Township in Lehigh County.

Twardzik defeated Democrat Kathy Laughlin Benyak of Pottsville to win re-election in the 123rd district that includes parts of Schuylkill County. Twardzik had 17,051 votes to Benyak’s 7,849.

In the 116th, Republican newcomer Watro defeated Democrat Yesenia Rodriguez, 9,755 to 4,476. The district covers parts of Schuylkill and Luzerne counties.