Devlin Robinson likely winner over Pam Iovino in race for 37th District state Senate seat
State Sen. Pam Iovino — one of only three Democrats to represent the 37th District in the past 50 years — appears to have lost a bid for a full term in office after serving only a year and a half.
But as of midday Nov. 5 she had not conceded the race to Republican Devlin Robinson.
“Allegheny and Washington counties have tabulated votes cast in-person and most of the votes cast by mail,” she posted on social media. “The results show us trailing, however, there remain an unknown number of votes that will need to be counted by hand.”
She said the votes that had not yet been tabulated include provisional ballots, ballots that could not be scanned and mail-in votes from members of the military and others that were postmarked by Election Day.
“I encourage everyone to be patient and to let the process play out,” she said.
The Senate district comprises much of Allegheny County’s southern and western suburbs, including Bethel Park, South Park, Mt. Lebanon, Bridgeville, Moon, Upper St. Clair, Sewickley and Jefferson Hills, as well as Peters Township in Washington County.
The tally after 213 of the 214 voting precincts counted showed Robinson leading with 77,707 votes, or 51.28%, of the 151,521 votes cast. Iovino received 73,689 votes, or 48.28%.
There were 125 write-in votes.
As of 11 p.m. Nov. 4, in Allegheny County all but 35,413 of the 348,485 ballots returned by mail still needed to be tabulated.
Turnout in the 37th District, which has 198,470 registered voters, was 62.51% — higher than in Allegheny County, where 56.26% of the 942,849 registered voters went to the polls.
Iovino, of Mt. Lebanon, won the seat by defeating Republican D. Raja in a 2019 special election to fill the vacancy created when Guy Reschenthaler was elected to Congress.
She ran unopposed in the spring Democratic primary.
Robinson, 37, of Bridgeville, defeated Jeff Neff for the GOP nomination in the spring primary.
Robinson was raised in the city’s Brookline neighborhood and graduated in 2001 from Pittsburgh Central Catholic High School.
Following graduation, he continued a four-generation family tradition and joined the Marine Corps. He went on to serve three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. His unit was part of the April 2003 rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch, an Army soldier taken prisoner of war in Iraq.
After his discharge from the military, Robinson founded a surgical equipment supply company called Veterans Medical Technology. He holds a business degree from Robert Morris University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School.
Tony LaRussa is a TribLive reporter. A Pittsburgh native, he covers crime and courts in the Alle-Kiski Valley. He can be reached at tlarussa@triblive.com.
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