HARRISBURG, PA — Democrat Brandon Dukes narrowly won Tuesday’s special election in Butler County’s 12th District, flipping a longtime Republican seat and positioning his party to expand its Pennsylvania House majority to 103-100 ahead of the November midterms.
Dukes received 8,469 votes, or 50.29%, while Republican Scott Timko received 8,372 votes, or 49.71%, according to unofficial Pennsylvania Department of State returns.
The 97-vote victory came in a district President Donald Trump carried by about 18 percentage points in 2024. Democrats had not represented the Butler County district in nearly 30 years.
Dukes is expected to be sworn in during September, giving Democrats their largest House majority since reclaiming control of the chamber with 102 seats in the 2022 election.
The expanded margin will give Speaker Joanna McClinton, a Philadelphia and Delaware County Democrat, more flexibility during the closing months of the legislative session, which ends Nov. 30. Republicans continue to control the state Senate.
Dukes, a commercial loan administrator, campaigned on infrastructure improvements and affordability. He and Timko are scheduled to compete again in the Nov. 3 general election for a full two-year term.
The House Democratic Campaign Committee reported that Dukes outperformed the district’s Democratic registration share by 16 percentage points. His campaign and the committee knocked on nearly 16,000 doors and made more than 85,000 calls, according to the organization.
McClinton framed the victory as support for the caucus’s economic and legislative record, including property-tax assistance for older residents, a worker tax credit, increased public-school funding and more than $1.5 billion in business tax reductions.
She identified regulating data-center expansion, funding schools and communities, and public safety as priorities for the enlarged majority.
McClinton’s office reported that the House has passed 467 bills during the current session, including measures addressing health care, data-center development and affordable housing. It contrasted that total with fewer than 90 bills passed by the Republican-controlled Senate.
House Democratic Campaign Committee Executive Director Madeline Zann characterized Dukes’ performance as a potential model for other competitive races, arguing that similar results could produce “an even larger majority expansion in November.”
Democrats regained the House in 2022 with a 102-101 majority after more than a decade of Republican control. Vacancies briefly left Republicans with a numerical advantage at the start of 2023, but Democrats restored their majority by winning three Allegheny County special elections that February.
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