Kelly ekes out win in new district
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly eked out a victory over challenger Ron DiNicola after trailing the Democrat for most of Tuesday night.
Voters in Erie County decidedly chose DiNicola, but Kelly won enough votes in the rest of the 16th Congressional District's four other counties to win.
Kelly earned about 51 percent of votes compared to about 47 percent won by DiNicola. Kelly earned about 156,000 votes compared to about 147,000 for DiNicola, according to unofficial totals posted online late Tuesday.
A car dealership owner and Butler native, Kelly currently represents all of Butler County in the 3rd Congressional District. But after the new U.S. House takes office, he will represent the bulk of its western half, along with all of Erie, Lawrence, Mercer and Crawford counties.
“It was a tough, tough race,” Kelly said Tuesday. “Right up the wire. We worked hard.”
In the city of Butler, Kelly and DiNicola posted neck-and-neck results. DiNicola won two of six precincts, and all six were within just a few percentage points.
The same was not true for the remainder of Butler County. In several districts, Kelly won well over 60 percent of the vote.
This is an excerpt — read the full story in Wednesday's Butler Eagle.
