Polls close at 8 p.m. for Tuesday’s special election in Pennsylvania’s 42nd state House district. 

The district includes South Hills suburbs Mount Lebanon, Dormont, Castle Shannon, Baldwin Township and part of Upper St. Clair. On the ballot are Democratic high school teacher Jennifer Mazzocco and Republican attorney Joseph Leckenby.

Follow this page for live election returns from the Associated Press starting immediately after polls close.

The winner will serve the remainder of the 2025-26 legislative term after the district’s prior representative, Dan Miller, a Democrat, resigned in January to become a judge.

The race, together with another special election today in Lehigh County, will determine which party controls the Pennsylvania House. Before the resignations that caused these special elections, Democrats held a one-vote majority in the lower chamber. State government will remain divided as Democrat Josh Shapiro is governor and Republicans control the Senate.

The winners will have to run in primaries and general elections this year to keep their seats going into the next term.

Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.

This story was made possible by donations to our independent, nonprofit newsroom.

Can you help us keep going with a gift?

We’re Pittsburgh’s Public Source. Since 2011, we’ve taken pride in serving our community by delivering accurate, timely, and impactful journalism — without paywalls. We believe that everyone deserves access to information about local decisions and events that affect them.

But it takes a lot of resources to produce this reporting, from compensating our staff, to the technology that brings it to you, to fact-checking every line, and much more. Reader support is crucial to our ability to keep doing this work.

If you learned something new from this story, consider supporting us with a donation today. Your donation helps ensure that everyone in Allegheny County can stay informed about issues that impact their lives. Thank you for your support!

GIVE NOW

MOST READ STORIES

Creative Commons License

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Charlie Wolfson is an enterprise reporter for Pittsburgh's Public Source, focusing on local government accountability and politics in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. He was a Report for America corps...