Bradford Vs Wissert: Election Results For State Rep. District 70

Update, 12:41 a.m.

Bradford has won re-election in the 70th District, as he holds an insurmountable lead over Wissert with the majority of all precincts and nearly half of all mail-in ballots reporting. This is Bradford's seventh consecutive victory.

Bradford: 12,749

Wissert: 7,.176

11:04 p.m.

Bradford holds a large early lead:

• Bradford: 7,195
• Wissert: 3,957

There are now 80 precincts reporting in Montgomery County, with 431 still not reporting. On the mail-in side, 103,118 of 239,336 ballots have been counted.

8:27 p.m.:

Montgomery County announced that they plan to release preliminary election results at 8:30 p.m. Mail-in ballots were legally allowed to be counted starting at 8 p.m., when polls closed.

NORRISTOWN, PA — Polls have closed in Pennsylvania, and election results will soon be trickling in for state legislature races across the state, including the 70th District in Montgomery County.

The race for the strongly blue seat pits longtime Democratic incumbent State Rep. Matt Bradford against Republican challenger Daniel Wissert.

Even before the "blue wave" of anti-Trump sentiment swept through southeastern Pennsylvania and delivered Democrats surprise victories in the 2018 midterm election, the 70th was one of the more lopsided left-leaning districts in a left-leaning county. The 70th District includes East Norriton, Norristown, Worcester, and Districts 1 and 2 in Plymouth Township.

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Bradford, who has been in office since 2009, has won six straight elections. The most recent of those, in 2018, was by his widest margin yet, when he beat Republican Christopher Mundiath 16,055 to 7,112.

The chairman of the Appropriations Committee, some of Bradford's touchstone issues include providing tax credits to small businesses, working for improved education funding in public schools, and improving infrastructure. Investments to the downtown district in Norristown have blossomed under his watch, and he touts his work with Gov. Wolf to finish the Lafayette Street extension in town. More recently, he's been a vocal supporter of Wolf's COVID-19 response, economic restrictions, and worker protections.

"We stand here today more reliant on service workers who are underpaid, underprotected, who worry about how they're going to take care of their children, who we don't give hazard pay, and we put these bills forth totally oblivious (to their pain)," Bradford said on the floor of the legislature, in response to a House GOP Bill attempting to lift COVID-19 mitigation measures.

Wissert, a Norristown resident, is a local businessman and community volunteer who has pitched himself as a "real people's person."

"We need to take back Montgomery County," he said, pointing to the "far left" and recent unrest as issues he would address in office, as well as re-opening the economy.

He notes some of his key issues as lowering school and property taxes, protecting the 2nd Amendment, and supporting school choice for families.

Jim Saring, the former executive director of the Montgomery County Republican Committee, ran unopposed in the primary for this seat, garnering 3,600 votes. But he dropped out prior to Election Day, and Wissert took his place on the ballot.

Bradford received 8,722 in his own unopposed primary.

Bradford has received $458,053 in donations this election cycle, and has spent $517,680, according to public records made available by TransparencyUSA. Fundraising data for Wissert was not available.

Republicans control both branches of the legislature in Pennsylvania, with a 109-93 majority in the state house heading into the general election. The 151st is one of many "swing" districts which will determine the balance of power in the state for the next two years.

Though Bradford has been in office for more than a decade, the seat was red for forty years before his election. Republicans held the 70th from 1969 through 2009.

For full coverage of the election in Pennsylvania, go here.