Much of the contest is being waged in Eastern Pennsylvania: The four state Senate seats Democrats are targeting<\/a> for their attempted takeover are near Philadelphia, and the state\u2019s most competitive U.S. House seats are there, too, drawing attention and spending away from Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n The Pittsburgh area has a handful of competitive state House races, though, and each party has its eyes on taking new \u2014 and in at least one case, familiar \u2014 territory.\u00a0<\/p>\n Local Democratic candidates said they are hearing from voters who are frustrated with President Donald Trump and the cost of gas, groceries and other expenses.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s real dissatisfaction with the current administration and so people who were blindly following the Trump administration two years ago are tired of it and are willing to listen to alternatives,\u201d said Hadley Haas, a Democrat running in Pittsburgh\u2019s western suburbs.<\/p>\n Brian Weismantle, the chair of the Republican Committee of Allegheny County, acknowledged that \u201cany sitting president\u201d has an effect on a midterm election, but declined to offer an assessment of Trump\u2019s term so far. \u201cI\u2019m going to leave that alone at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just going to say that people are going to decide what they want to decide, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to have to live with. And hopefully they make the right decisions, whatever they may be,\u201d Weismantle said.<\/p>\n One battleground district Republican candidate, Scott Timko of Butler County, said Trump has been an exceptionally \u201cconsequential\u201d president and has followed through on his campaign promises, but said future historians may be better positioned to assess his job performance.<\/p>\n Here are three state House races to watch next Tuesday as the story of the 2026 election comes into focus.<\/p>\n 12th District: \u2018Hair on fire\u2019 voters<\/p>\n The district: The southwestern corner of Butler County. Municipalities: Adams, Callery, Cranberry, Evans City, Harmony, Jackson, Mars, Seven Fields, Valencia, Zelienople<\/p>\n The candidates: The incumbent is Democrat Brandon Dukes, who was elected in an August special election and has worked as a loan administrator for the past 16 years. Scott Timko, a commercial pilot and former Air Force captain, is the Republican nominee.\u00a0Both live in Cranberry.<\/p>\n The past results:<\/p>\n 2026 special: Dukes (D) +0.5<\/p>\n 2024 presidential: Trump (R) +18<\/p>\n 2024 legislative: Scialabba (R) +30<\/p>\n 2022 legislative: Scialabba (R) +24<\/p>\n This seat has been a Republican stronghold in recent memory, was held by conservative Daryl Metcalfe for almost a quarter century, and favored Trump by 18 points in 2024. That\u2019s not the profile of a typical battleground seat, but everything changed this August when Democrat Brandon Dukes won it in a special election by 98 votes.<\/p>\n Dukes faces a rematch with Timko Nov. 3, and Republicans are hoping the larger turnout expected for a general election will help flip the seat back to their column.<\/p>\n Timko said higher turnout in the general election would benefit him due to the Republicans\u2019 1.75-to-1 voter registration edge in the district, even if Democrats are highly motivated to oppose the president.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m certainly aware that people who oppose him have their hair on fire to come out and make a referendum to oppose Trump,\u201d Timko said. \u201cWhen it comes to registration, we have a majority. If he motivates people to the polls, I tend to think that helps me.\u201d<\/p>\n Even if the seat goes back to the Republicans, this is turf that has changed significantly in recent years. Both candidates pointed out that Cranberry and other parts of Butler County have grown significantly, and both said a priority will be upgrading infrastructure to better support the larger population.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been mainly focusing on Republican and independent doors for this race because they have the advantage over us,\u201d Dukes said. \u201cA lot of people who\u2019ve been Republican their whole life and I knock on their door and [they] say we voted for you in the special.\u201d<\/p>\n Dukes said he\u2019s seen discontent among voters in the district toward the cost of gas and \u201cchaos coming from the top.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of them were just looking to make a change\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Timko also identified prices as the top issue for voters this year, but blamed former President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re only two years away from trying to climb out of the disaster of the Biden administration and runaway inflation and printing money hand over fist,\u201d Timko said. \u201cinflation is pretty low 1793010008 \u2026 The cost of groceries, the cost of fuel right now is pretty high, that\u2019s probably number one on their mind.\u201d<\/p>\n 44th District: Among the county\u2019s purple turfs<\/p>\n The district: Pittsburgh suburbs on the western edge of Allegheny County. Municipalities: Aleppo, Bell Acres, Crescent, Edgeworth, Findlay, Glen Osborne, Glenfield, Haysville, Leet, Leetsdale, Moon, North Fayette, Sewickley, Sewickley Heights, Sewickley Hills<\/p>\n The candidates: The incumbent is Republican Rep. Valerie Gaydos of Edgeworth. She was first elected to the seat in 2018. The Democratic challenger is Hadley Haas, a Glen Osborne resident who is a full-time volunteer with a gun safety advocacy organization. Haas also challenged Gaydos in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n The past results:<\/p>\n 2024 presidential: Trump\u00a0 (R) +4<\/p>\n 2024 legislative: Gaydos (R) +8<\/p>\n 2022 legislative: Gaydos (R) +10<\/p>\n This airport-area district went for Trump in 2024, but by the narrowest margin of any of Allegheny County\u2019s \u201cred\u201d districts, making it Democrats\u2019 top target for a flip this year. Haas is one of many Democratic candidates hopeful that Trump\u2019s negative approval ratings, and anger over gas prices and the war in Iran, will turn the tide in a contested race.<\/p>\n Haas said the top issue raised by voters on the campaign trail has been affordability of gas and other essentials.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve heard people talking about how their elderly relatives are going to have to move in with them,\u201d Haas said. \u201cRecent college grads have been forced to move out of state because they feel life isn\u2019t affordable here in Pennsylvania \u2026 people are frustrated that the costs are going up and they\u2019re not making more money.\u201d<\/p>\n Voters swinging against the party in power would be in keeping with historical trends. The president\u2019s party lost seats in one or both houses of Congress in 21 of the last 23 midterm elections, including each of the last five. That trend also applied to Pennsylvania state House elections dating back at least to 1994.<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s municipal and judicial elections may also give Democrats some reason for optimism: Four municipalities, including the largest in the district (Moon), were carried by Trump in 2024 but went for a Democratic judicial candidate in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.publicsource.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/rli40-where-is-the-12th-pa.-house-district-1.png\")
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