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Republican Chris Quinn wins special election for 168th House District

The Republican Party kept its 47-year winning streak in Pennsylvania's 168th House District alive Tuesday when Middletown Township Councilman Chris Quinn won a special election to represent some of Delaware County's wealthiest towns.

The Republican Party kept its 47-year winning streak in Pennsylvania's 168th House District alive Tuesday when Middletown Township Councilman Chris Quinn won a special election to represent some of Delaware County's wealthiest towns.

With all precincts counted, Quinn had 5,329 votes to defeat Democrat Diane Cornman-Levy, who collected 3,788. Quinn will fill the vacancy created when Republican Tom Killion, who represented the district from 2003 to 2016, resigned after winning a special election to serve in the state Senate.

"I'm looking forward to representing the residents of Delaware County and of the 168th Legislative District," Quinn, 44, said. "Based on the numbers, I feel like I have cross-party support."

Cornman-Levy, 55, who runs an educational nonprofit organization, said she planned to congratulate Quinn on his victory. But she quickly turned to Nov. 4, when the two candidates will again face each other, this time in the general election.

"I look at this race as building the foundation that we need to win in November," Cornman-Levy said. "And I believe we will win in November. We learned a lot."

The results are unlikely to change the dynamic in Harrisburg, where Republicans boast a 36-seat advantage in the 203-member house.

Although Quinn, who says he expects to be sworn in the next few weeks, supports replacing the impact fee on developers with a natural gas extraction tax, his position on tax increases echoes that of the rest of his party: They are to be enacted only as a last resort.

Given its unusual timing, the election was expected to be a low-turnout event, and turnout was indeed low. Officials said roughly 20 percent of registered voters cast ballots. As a result, the campaign was about which party could get more of its voters to the polls, a game at which Delaware County Republicans have historically excelled.

The GOP has dominated county politics for nearly a century, from the days when Chester political boss John McClure controlled the county government, and the party still holds every elected office at the county level. The GOP advantage extends to the 168th District, where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by 20 percent.

Democrats, however, have made steady gains in this traditionally Republican turf and made local history in 2013 by surpassing the GOP in countywide voter registration.

They campaigned aggressively to boost turnout in the 168th, and many believed they had a real shot.

"I feel like people are receptive to the idea of voting" for Cornman-Levy, Zoe Kovacs, 20, of Newton Square, said before the polls closed. Kovacs knocked on 50 doors for Cornman-Levy on Tuesday, pushing the total number of households contacted by the campaign to over 6,000. But it was not enough.

dblock@phillynews.com 914-960-0230 @dblock94