Political newcomer Brittany Bloam jumped out to an early lead Tuesday night over political veteran Allegheny County Council President Pat Catena in a race for the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania’s 45th state House District.
As of 9:30 p.m., about 46% of precincts reporting unofficial results, Bloam had collected 61.15% of the votes tallied compared with Catena’s 38.54%.
Catena made a swift exit from his campaign party at Mama Lena’s Firehouse Grill in Kennedy shortly after the early results came in, but told TribLive he did not plan to concede yet.
“We still don’t know the official results at this point,” Catena said. “I spent a lot of time away from my family and my son. I’m going to try and go home and finish watching the rest of the results with him.”
Bloam, a land use and zoning attorney from Robinson, could not be reached for immediate comment.
The 45th state House District covers part of Allegheny County, including Collier, Kennedy, Neville, Robinson and Stowe townships and the boroughs of Bridgeville, Carnegie, Coraopolis, McKees Rocks and Pennsbury Village.
It has been represented by state Rep. Anita Astorino Kulik, D-Kennedy, since 2017. She announced last year that she would retire at the end of her term.
Republican James Julius, an artificial intelligence company founder from McKees Rocks, was unopposed in the primary.
What had been a largely quiet race for the Democratic nomination gained increased attention late in the campaign over a controversial mailer sent out by Catena’s campaign, alleging that Bloam was supported by “an EXTREME LEFT GROUP THAT ADVOCATES FOR TRANSGENDER ATHLETES in our sports.”
Catena issued an apology following the mailer. Bloam released a statement comparing Catena’s campaign tactics to “MAGA extremists.”
A majority of Allegheny County councilmembers are actively attempting to remove Catena from the presidency over the incident.
Tom Patterson, 70, of Collier, attended Catena’s campaign party. Despite being a registered Republican, Patterson said he supported Catena and, if elected, planned to vote for him in the general election over Julius.
Patterson said Catena’s experience on county council has given him the opportunity to “see the ways things have turned” politically. He said he thinks Catena would rein things in from moving too far in one direction.
Patterson’s wife, Peggy, 68, said she supports Catena’s stance on transgender athletes competing in sports.
“It’s frightening that they’re attacking him,” she said.
Catena, of Carnegie, has served on Allegheny County Council since 2017 and became council president in 2020.
During his primary campaign, Catena said he was focused on issues including infrastructure and affordability.
“People want safer schools, they want better education, they want more funding for education, and the state needs to do better with that. There are so many issues,” Catena said. “The minimum wage is obviously artificially low — we’re one of the lowest states around here, and these are the things that need to get done sooner than later.”
Bloam leaned into her identity as a mother throughout her campaign, emphasizing policies and priorities aimed at supporting families and women.
“The top three priorities for the campaign are lowering costs for working families, fully funding our public schools and protecting our democracy from extremism,” Bloam said.
Bloam, an avid supporter for raising minimum wage and pro-choice rights defender, also pressed the issue of affordability in her campaign.
“Everything is so expensive right now, costs just keep rising. Gas seems to go up every single day, and I’m committed to policies that make our communities more affordable without tax increases, and this would include increasing access to quality healthcare and childcare,” Bloam said.
Currently, there are 102 Democrats in the House, 99 Republicans and two vacancies.
This is a developing story.