GOP’s Verobish defeats McCoy in 79th District
State Rep. Andrea Verobish (right), R-Blair, celebrates her re-election with supporter Kim Gorman of Hollidaysburg during a watch party at the Altoona Grand Hotel in Altoona on Tuesday evening. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Rep. Andrea Verobish (right), R-Blair, celebrates her reelection with supporter Kim Gorman of Hollidaysburg during a watch party at the Altoona Grand Hotel in Altoona on Tuesday evening.
Democratic candidate for the 79th General Assembly District Caleb McCoy (left) and 30th Senate District Sean Steeg enjoy the nationwide blue wave during a watch party at the Bavarian Aid Society in Altoona on Tuesday evening. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski
State Rep. Andrea Verobish (right), R-Blair, celebrates her re-election with supporter Kim Gorman of Hollidaysburg during a watch party at the Altoona Grand Hotel in Altoona on Tuesday evening. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Rep. Andrea Verobish (right), R-Blair, celebrates her reelection with supporter Kim Gorman of Hollidaysburg during a watch party at the Altoona Grand Hotel in Altoona on Tuesday evening.
Democratic candidate for the 79th General Assembly District Caleb McCoy (left) and 30th Senate District Sean Steeg enjoy the nationwide blue wave during a watch party at the Bavarian Aid Society in Altoona on Tuesday evening. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski
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Republican incumbent state Rep. Andrea Verobish Tuesday defeated Democratic challenger Caleb McCoy for the second time this year to retain her seat in the 79th District, centered on Altoona.
Verobish got 11,877 votes to McCoy's 8,191 on Tuesday.
Verobish beat McCoy earlier this year in a special election when the 79th seat opened after Lou Schmitt won election as a Blair County judge.
She attributed her victory to "strong constituent services," special events and her co-sponsorship of worthwhile bills.
The constituent services include help with PennDOT forms, forms for rent rebates and tax forms -- "anything state-related," she said.
"My office is ready to help," she said. "It's a very busy office."
The events have centered on document shredding, car seat installation and a data center town hall.
The bills she has co-sponsored include one that called for a gas tax holiday and one to make child care more affordable through an after-school program.
More broadly, she has been "fighting for values" held by local people, including those embodied in the Constitution's First and Second amendments, as well as "right-to-life," she said.
During his campaign, McCoy "laid out our vision" for how to do things better in state government, he said.
That included an attempt to lower prices, raising salaries, along with the minimum wage; expanding access to child care, promoting paid parental leave, addressing healthcare issues and in general supporting "working-class people," he said.
To get those ideas across, he personally interacted with constituents, knocking on 5,500 doors, he said.
His team of several dozen volunteers totaled more than 10,000 doors knocked upon, he said.
Verobish began to incorporate some of those ideas into her campaign, he said.
Now that she has won again, he hopes she carries those through, McCoy said.