{"id":82742,"date":"2026-01-09T21:32:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T21:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/82742\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T21:32:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T21:32:06","slug":"what-to-know-about-pennsylvanias-upcoming-special-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/82742\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know about Pennsylvania\u2019s upcoming special elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following resignations in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, four seats in the chamber will be up for grabs in special elections scheduled for February and March.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The resignations came after several lawmakers formally submitted their resignations after they won elections for local office in November. The lawmakers who have since departed the chamber are former state Reps. Torren Ecker, Dan Miller, Lou Schmitt and Josh Siegel.<\/p>\n<p>Dates for all four of the special elections are set after House Speaker Joanna McClinton signed writs of election to fill the now-vacant seats.<\/p>\n<p>House District 22: The special election for House District 22 will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 24. The seat was formerly held by Siegel, a Democrat who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfmz.com\/news\/area\/lehighvalley\/lehigh-county\/josh-siegel-sworn-in-as-lehigh-co-exec-becomes-youngest-ever-executive-in-pa\/article_c8f31686-d552-4621-a4de-f33660bd2c78.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">sworn in<\/a> as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityandstatepa.com\/politics\/2025\/12\/lessons-lehigh-interview-county-executive-elect-josh-siegel\/410142\/?oref=cspa-skybox-post\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lehigh County Executive<\/a> on Jan. 5. The Lehigh County district represents parts of the City of Allentown and Salisbury Township.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>House District 42: The special election for House District 42 will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 24. The seat was most recently held by Miller, a Democrat who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wesa.fm\/politics-government\/2025-12-08\/dan-miller-house-seat-opening\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">elected as an Allegheny County Common Pleas judge<\/a> in November. The Allegheny County district encompasses Baldwin Township, Castle Shannon Borough, Dormont Borough, Mount Lebanon Township and Upper St. Clair Township.<\/p>\n<p>House District 79: The special election for House District 79 will be held on Tuesday, March 17. The seat was previously held by Schmitt, a Republican who was elected and recently sworn in as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcheraldonline.com\/story\/2026\/01\/08\/news\/new-judges-sworn-in-at-blair-county-courthouse\/20632.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">judge on the Blair County Court of Common Pleas.<\/a> The Blair County District encompasses Allegheny Township, the City of Altoona, Logan Township and Tunnelhill Borough.<\/p>\n<p>House District 193: The special election for House District 193 will be held on Tuesday, March 17.\u00a0 The seat was previously held by Ecker, a Republican who was elected in November as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgtimes.com\/news\/local\/article_bc6c6890-1796-47a9-9eed-0c06e8318171.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">judge on the Adams County Court of Common Pleas.<\/a> The 193rd House District encompasses parts of Cumberland County and parts of Adams County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following resignations in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, four seats in the chamber will be up for grabs&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3444,8434,8433,2156,28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-82742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-campaigns-elections","9":"tag-capitol-beat","10":"tag-general-assembly","11":"tag-news-politics","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","14":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}