He came in dead first.
A state lawmaker in Pennsylvania was re-elected on Tuesday despite passing away last month.
Tony DeLuca, a Democrat, died of lymphoma on Oct. 9, too late for election officials to change the ballots. DeLuca was 85.
DeLuca, who served in the state legislature for 39 years, defeated the Green Party’s Queonia “Zarah” Livingston, garnering more than 85% of the vote in his deep-blue Allegheny County district.
“While we’re incredibly saddened by the loss of Representative Tony DeLuca, we are proud to see the voters continue to show their confidence in him and his commitment to Democratic values by re-electing him posthumously,” Pennsylvania House Democrats said in a tweet. “A special election will follow soon.”
Tony DeLuca died last month at age 85. PA House of RepresentativesA local reporter suggested voters in DeLuca’s district voted for him anyway to avoid electing the third-party candidate Livingston.
“Some folks commenting that the voters here were oblivious,” wrote Charlie Wolfson of PublicSourcePA Wednesday on Twitter. “Some certainly were. But for others, they likely preferred the idea of a special election over electing the third-party candidate on the ballot.”
