Pa House District 10
State Rep. Aaron Bernstine holds the lead in all three counties of the House of Representatives 10th District in his bid for reelection.
According to Butler County's unofficial returns Tuesday night, Bernstine led with 1,475 votes. Democrat Kolbe Cole received 716 votes and United Party candidate Johnathan Peffer received 75 votes in the county.
“What we wanted to do was go out and talk to people and talk about the work we've done,” Bernstine said. “I'd love the opportunity to be hired again for two more years. I'd love the opportunity to continue to serve these people.”
In Butler County, the 10th District includes only Slippery Rock borough and township. The district is heavily influenced by voters in Beaver and Lawrence counties.
Bernstine also led in the other two counties in the district. Lawrence County's unofficial returns showed a mix of some mail-in votes as well as in-person results. With 74 of 75 precincts tallied, Bernstine led with 7,373 votes, followed by Cole with 3,496, and Peffer with 2,247.
Including unofficial returns for in-person voting, Bernstine led Beaver County with 4,842 votes, followed by Cole with 2,882 and Peffer with 1,381.
Cole said she was proud of the campaign she ran and the people who supported her along her journey.
“I would say thank you to all of those that supported me and thank you to District 10 for giving me a chance,” she said. “I look forward to working with all the amazing people I've met on the journey.”
Peffer said he was disheartened to see his theory proven true that people are still clinging to a two-party system and allowing their parties to make their decisions for them. He expressed zero confidence in either candidate.
“In 60 days, I may or may not have accumulated enough votes to win, but what I proved was that all that people care about is an 'R' or a 'D' next to their name, and they don't even know what they stand for anymore,” Peffer said. “Our entire system is failing us right now.”
With a victory, Bernstine said his top priority would be the upcoming budget which contains a more than $4 billion deficit.
“My main focus, and we will start this tomorrow, is making sure we get a budget put together that doesn't raise taxes on Pennsylvanians. There's a serious budget deficit. We need to make sure we balance this budget and we don't do that on the backs of hardworking Pennsylvanians.”
Bernstine said he was optimistic Tuesday night after having good responses from his travel around polling sites.
“We feel confident about what we saw on the ground today,” Bernstine said. “And the work we've put in over the last four years will hopefully pay off and allow us to be re-elected.”
