Lloyd Smucker wins re-election in 11th Congressional District

• Marie Cusick/StateImpact Pennsylvania
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  Marie Cusick was the Harrisburg reporter for StateImpact Pennsylvania.

 

(Manheim) — Freshman GOP Congressman Lloyd Smucker was reelected to a second term Tuesday night—defeating Democratic challenger Jess King in the 11th district. Smucker garnered 59 percent of votes in the district, with King getting 41 percent.

“This campaign has always been about you,” he told a crowd of supporters gathered Tuesday night at election party in Manheim, Lancaster County. “Not more government, not more Washington, not more empowering bureaucrats to make decisions for you. A vision of individual responsibly and personal freedom. That was our promise in 2016.”

Smucker spent two terms in the state senate before his election to congress in 2016. He won in the former 16th district two years ago after longtime GOP congressman Joe Pitts retired.

Smucker’s key message was that he kept his promises to constituents. He cited the nation’s robust economic picture, the Republican tax overhaul, and regulatory rollbacks. He touted his experience running his family’s drywall business, while painting King as a radical liberal, who would raise taxes.

King took leave of her job as executive director of the Lancaster city nonprofit ASSETS to run for office and began her campaign before Pennsylvania’s congressional maps were redrawn, making the seat more favorable to the GOP.

Conceding the race Tuesday evening, King said in a statement that her campaign rejected a politics of fear and division and instead, “chose to talk with neighbors of all political persuasions about our hopes, and our ideas about how to build an America that works for all of us. Every one of those conversations represents a step forward in building the country we need and, despite results of this election, those seeds of change will remain and grow.”