Republicans choose Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons to run in 36th Senate District special election

Update: This story was updated at 4:45 p.m. to include comment from Lancaster County Democratic Committee Chairman Tom O'Brien. 

Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons won the Republican Party nomination Saturday morning for the upcoming 36th Senatorial District special election.

Parsons secured 119 votes of the 197 ballots cast from eligible GOP committee members who live in the 36th. The runner-up, state Rep. Brett Miller, received 78 votes.

“This isn’t the end,” Parsons, 49, told the crowd from the podium onstage immediately after the vote. “We've got a two-month fast general election to run.”

The March 25th special election is needed to replace Ryan Aument, who resigned from the seat last month to work as U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick’s state office director.

With the party’s informal straw polls this month indicating he’d likely win the nomination, Parsons’ supporters were ready to launch his campaign before the ballots were cast Saturday.

Kevin Harley, a Harrisburg-based Republican Party strategist, sat in the guest seating area with a stack of “Josh PARSONS for STATE SENATE” stickers ready to be handed out to committee members.

And with much of the crowd still mingling in the Landisville Intermediate Center auditorium after the vote, Parsons sat at a table with county GOP organizers to fill out his nomination paperwork to be taken to the Department of State office in Harrisburg on Monday.

The Republican nomination meeting began at 9:30 a.m. Within 45 minutes, all the ballots were cast and counted, and Parsons was announced the victor.

Parsons will likely win the special election against Democratic candidate James Andrew Malone, the mayor of East Petersburg, given the GOP’s majority of registered voters in the 36th, which covers 25 municipalities across northern Lancaster County.

Parsons told LNP | LancasterOnline after the vote that he would announce during his campaign policies he would be interested in pursuing if elected.

Miller, 63, said after the vote that he’d help campaign for Parsons to win the election. Both Republicans agreed their competition for the nomination didn’t harm their relationship or their potential to collaborate in the General Assembly if Parsons wins the seat.

Libertarian Party candidate Zachary Moore, of Mount Joy, also will campaign for the 36th District seat.

Tom O’Brien, chair of the Lancaster County Democratic Committee, said voters will have “a clear choice” between the “extremist” Parsons and Malone, the “common sense candidate.”

Inside the meeting

Two other Republicans running — J.P. McCaskey High School teacher Steven Heffner and retired Landisville resident Brad Witmer — were disqualified from the ballot after no committee members advanced a motion to vote on their candidacy.

Parsons’ candidacy was advanced by state Rep. Tom Jones, of East Donegal Township, and Manheim Central Area Chair Ann Hess. Miller was nominated by Manheim Township Area Chair Mary Jo Huyard and the motion was seconded by Ephrata Area Chair Glenn Beiler.

In the back row of the auditorium — designated for nonparticipating guests — sat other notable county Republicans Sheriff Chris Leppler, county Commissioner Ray D’Agostino and former county Commissioner Dennis Stuckey.

Standing in the crowd were state Rep. Dave Zimmerman, of East Earl Township, and state Sen. Chris Gebhard, whose 48th District covers a sliver of northeast Lancaster County.

Gebhard this month began a two-year term as chairman of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee. He told a reporter before the meeting that he did not have a preferred candidate between Parsons and Miller.

“I’m here to make sure whoever wins today, wins again in March,” he said.