U.S. Rep. Shuster wins Republican primary for 9th Congressional District
U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster fended off challenger Art Halvorson to win the Republican primary for the sprawling 9th Congressional District, virtually assuring he will win his ninth term to Congress in the fall.
With most precincts in the mammoth district reporting late Tuesday night, Shuster held a slim 52-to-48 percent lead over Halvorson in the race. Shuster, the eight-term incumbent from Blair County, received 42,966 votes compared to 38,958 for Halvorson.
Shuster won nearly 71 percent of the Republican vote in the district in Greene County. He received 944 votes in Greene County compared to Halvorson’s 377 votes.
He also won the part of the district that slithers into Washington County, receiving 2,265 votes with Halvorson receiving only 1,043, according to election results.
Shuster, 55, won the seat held by his father, Bud, for 28 years before the elder Shuster left office in 2001. Shuster fended off controversy over the past year about whether his connection to airline lobbyists, including a romantic relationship with Shelley Rubino, a high-ranking official with the Airlines for America lobbying firm, was influencing his position as chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
Shuster could not be reached for comment on his primary night victory.
Halvorson, 60, of Bedford County, a commercial developer and retired U.S. Coast Guard captain, unsuccessfully ran against Shuster two years ago.
No Democrat is running in the congressional race in the district that is considered a safe Republican seat because of heavy concentration of conservative voters in the central part of the rural district that snakes from the Gettysburg area to Punxsutawney and into the Mon Valley.
The district was reconfigured following the 2010 Census to include most of the Mon Valley communities in Washington County, the eastern part of Greene County and Monessen and Belle Vernon in Westmoreland County. The district also includes parts of Somerset, Cambria and Huntingdon counties and all of Fayette, Indiana, Bedford, Blair, Fulton and Franklin.