(NewsNation) — With 51% of the vote, NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ has called the race for Pennsylvania District 8 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in favor of Rob Bresnahan. See results of U.S. House and U.S. Senate races from around the country here.
The 8th Congressional District race was among the most competitive and highly watched not only among Pennsylvania’s House races but nationally.
Six-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright was up against Republican Rob Bresnahan, a first-time candidate and developer who runs a family construction company.
Pennsylvania is home to one of the “Biden 16” — the 16 House districts nationally that President Joe Biden won in 2020 but are represented by Republicans.
The state is also home to one of the eight districts that former President Donald Trump won but are represented by Democrats.
The race in the 8th District became one of the most expensive congressional contests in the state.
Cartwright outraised Bresnahan by more than 2-to-1 through June 30, with outside groups pouring more than $11 million into it, according to disclosures to the Federal Election Commission.
Cartwright is a lawyer by training and quickly rose to House Democratic leadership.
He was one of five Democrats nationally running for reelection in a district won by Trump in 2020 and has been a perennial Republican target that has consistently fended off challengers, if by slim margins.
Bresnahan didn’t belong to a union but said he served as chairman of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 163 apprenticeship program and trustee of its health and wellness program which he channeled to appeal to unions.
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Unions are a critical bloc in Pennsylvania, where union members make up 14.1% of the state, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Bresnahan had contributed $2,000 to Cartwright’s 2022 campaign and said he gave it to Cartwright because the congressman backed a since-abandoned natural gas plant near Nanticoke.
Heading into Tuesday’s election, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election. Republicans control the chamber with a narrow majority of 220 seats while the Democrats occupy 212 and three vacancies.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
