Election results show Democrats sweeping key Lehigh Valley races, retaining Pa. Supreme Court

Election Day 2025 came to a close with votes being tabulated late into Tuesday night.

In the Lehigh Valley, the most intense local campaigns this year were for county executive in Lehigh and Northampton counties. Judgeships were also on the ballot in both counties. Democrats swept those contest and also fared well elsewhere.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court retention questions drew considerable interest from locals. The stakes were high, The Associated Press reported, with three justices elected as Democrats on the ballot. All three won retention.

Across the Delaware River, Phillipsburg had contested races for town council, but New Jersey gubernatorial race drew the most attention. Democrat Mikie Sherrill prevailed.

We followed the results for these races throughout Tuesday night and into early Wednesday morning. The following is a look at all our election updates during that time:

12:18 a.m. Wednesday: Democrat Josh Siegel, a Pennsylvania state representative, defeated Republican Roger MacLean, a former Allentown police chief, in Tuesday’s election for Lehigh County executive. Siegel, 31, had a commanding lead over MacLean as of 12:15 a.m. Wednesday. His 56,611 votes to MacLean’s 36,798 votes was good for more than 60% of the tally, unofficial results show.

12:04 a.m. Wednesday: In the race for Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas judge, Democrat Mark Stanziola, an Allentown-based attorney, defeated Republican Patricia Fuentes Mulqueen, chief of prosecutions in the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office, in Tuesday’s election, according to unofficial results.

11:57 p.m.: With all five Phillipsburg Town Council seats on Tuesday’s general election ballot due to the unexpected resignations of two Republican council members earlier this year, unofficial results show voters picked four Democrats and one Republican to serve on the new council to be seated in 2026. Council President Peter J. Marino, a Republican, appears to have fallen short in his re-election bid, if the unofficial results stand.

11:04 p.m.: Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk appeared to win re-election to a second four-year term running the Lehigh Valley’s largest city. The Democrat had an overwhelming lead over challenger Ed Zucal, a Democrat who secured the Republican nomination through a write-in campaign in the May primary election. Lehigh County posted unofficial results showing Tuerk with 12,001 votes to 4,644 for Zucal — a percentage split of 72-28 between the vote tally for the two candidates.

11 p.m.: Unofficial results show Democrats will retain their hold on all seven Bethlehem City Council seats. With all Northampton County posting full results from all precincts and Lehigh County posting partial results from all precincts, incumbent Rachel Leon led with 12,714 votes followed by 12,254 for incumbent Hillary Kwiatek, 12,123 for Justin Amann, 11,966 for Jo Daniels and 4,923 for the lone Republican on the ballot, Joseph Poplawski.

10:49 p.m.: According to unofficial results posted by the county with all precincts reporting, Democrat Jeremy Clark took the election for Northampton County judge with 51,814 votes to 34,924 votes for Republican James Fuller — for a percentage split of about 60-40 between the vote tally for the two.

10:42 p.m.: Democratic candidates swept all five races for Northampton County Council, according to unofficial results posted by the county with all precincts reporting. Incumbent President Lori Vargo Heffner led with 48,658 votes, followed by 48,498 for David Holland, 47,318 for Jason Boulette, 47,124 for Theresa Fadem and 43,904 for Nadeem Qayyum, according to the results. The top vote getter among the Republican candidates was Sam Elias with 34,968 votes.

10:32 p.m.: Easton voters in District 2 — covering most of the West Ward — have elected Democrat Julie Zando-Dennis over Republican Sharbel Koorie for the city council seat representing the district. It was the only Easton City Council race that was contested in Tuesday’s election.

10:28 p.m.: Northampton County voters on Tuesday elected Tara Zrinski as county executive, the top administrator position, according to unofficial results with all precincts reporting. The Democrat beat Republican Tom Giovanni, a county councilman. Zrinski, 50, of Bethlehem, served on the county council from 2018 through 2023, when she was elected county controller.

10:02 p.m.: All three Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices who sought re-election will get another term, ensuring Democratic jurists keep their majority on the presidential battleground state’s highest court. Tuesday’s vote shapes the court’s makeup ahead of midterm elections next year, when the panel could be asked to settle partisan battles over election laws. Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht were originally elected as Democrats. Their re-election continues the Democratic majority, which is currently 5-2. Defeats for all three justices would have potentially left the bench in a partisan deadlock for two years, with two Democrats and two Republicans.

9:38 p.m.: Zohran Mamdani has been elected mayor of New York City, capping the Democrat’s stunning ascent from little-known state lawmaker just a year ago to one of the most talked-about politicians in the country. Mamdani, a 34-year-old assembly member, defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa in Tuesday’s election. With the victory, the democratic socialist will etch his place in history as the city’s first Muslim mayor, the first of South Asian heritage and the first born in Africa. He will also become the city’s youngest mayor in more than a century when he takes office on Jan. 1.

9:28 p.m.: Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said Tuesday’s election was safe and secure: “Thank you to the hundreds of county officials and the approximately 45,000 poll workers who staffed 9,163 polling places so their fellow Pennsylvanians could make their voices heard today.” State officials aided three counties that experienced issues on Election Day, including in Chester County where officials discovered early in the day that poll books were missing the names of voters registered with third parties and unaffiliated voters. A court order extended polling hours in Chester County until 10 p.m. Unofficial statewide results will be posted on the Department of State’s elections return site at electionreturns.pa.gov, with totals and county-by-county breakdowns for each race.

9:25 p.m.: Democratic U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill has been elected governor of New Jersey. Her victory over Republican Jack Ciattarelli shores up Democratic control of a state that has been reliably blue in presidential and Senate contests but had shown signs of shifting rightward in recent years. The four-term member of Congress centered her campaign on her biography as a Navy helicopter pilot and former prosecutor who would stand up to President Donald Trump. She will be New Jersey’s second female governor. Ciattarelli lost his second straight governor’s election after coming within a few points of defeating Gov. Phil Murphy four years ago.

8:54 p.m.: In Virginia, former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger has won the race for governor. Her win gives Democrats a boost heading into the 2026 midterm elections and compels Republicans to consider how President Donald Trump and his allies might fare in battleground states and districts. Spanberger defeated Marine veteran and Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in a campaign heavily centered on economic issues. Spanberger is a former CIA case officer and she served six years in Congress. Her victory flips Virginia’s executive mansion from GOP control.

8:01 p.m.: The Northampton County Elections Office issued a statement that it will begin posting results from mail-in and absentee ballots now that polls are closed in Pennsylvania, The statement noted that results posted on the following link are unofficial and will not include write-in candidates.

4:38 p.m.: In New Jersey, a Middlesex County juvenile has been accused of texting a bomb threat to a polling location during Tuesday’s general election, officials with the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said. The North Brunswick juvenile was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon after authorities said they texted a bomb threat to the Livingston Park Elementary School polling location, officials said, according to our sister website NJ.com.

3:21 p.m.: In Pennsylvania, nearly 20% of voters in Chester County were left out of poll books originally provided to polling locations on Tuesday, county officials said, according to an AP report. “That included voters registered as anything other than a Republican or a Democrat, including those registered with the Green or Libertarian parties or independents with no party affiliation. The category includes about 75,000 registered voters out of roughly 385,000 countywide,” the AP reports. “Election officials became aware of the problem just after polling places opened and were ‘actively deploying’ supplemental poll books to 230 polling locations, county spokesperson Rebecca Brain said.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Generative AI was used to produce an initial draft of some contributions to this report, which were reviewed and edited by lehighvalleylive.com staff.

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