This year’s battle for the 17th Congressional District saw Republican State Representative Rob Mercuri face incumbent Democratic Congressman Chris Deluzio. The 17th has been a long-sought-after seat for Republicans since redistricting in 2020, but has remained in Democratic control.
Republicans were hoping Rob Mercuri, a veteran, West Point Graduate, and multi-term State Representative from the 28th legislative district would match up well in this race. Mercuri and Deluzio, himself a veteran, Naval Academy graduate, and former attorney, have similar backgrounds. Mercuri cruised through the Republican primary and seemed to have momentum behind him earning the coveted ‘Young Gun’ designation from the NRCC in July.
The 17th Congressional District contains all of Republican-heavy Beaver County and then drops down into Western, Northern, and Eastern Allegheny County. For Republicans hoping to unseat Deluzio, they need to run up the score in Beaver County and keep it close in the more Democrat-friendly Allegheny County suburbs.
In 2020, then-incumbent Congressman Conor Lamb defeated his Republican challenger Sean Parnell by just 2.2 points. In 2022, following Lamb’s run for the open PA Senate seat, the upstart Deluzio defeated Republican Jeremy Shaffer by 6.8 points. Now, in 2024, he looks to have expanded on that margin winning by 7.4% points over Mercuri.
This district was also considered Western Pennsylvania’s most competitive district with the Cook Political Report rating it a lean Democrat seat. The neighboring 12th and 16th Congressional districts are safe seats held by Democrat Summer Lee and Republican Mike Kelly respectively.
With Deluzio holding a comfortable 53-46 lead late on Election Night, the incumbent Congressman declined to claim victory in the race.
“We’ve got some ballots still to be counted,” he told supporters at a Carpenters union hall. “I think we’re going to win this thing. We’re going to let the process play out. Deluzio said shortly before midnight, “I hope we have a win to announce soon.”
The AP would then call the race in favor of the sitting Congressman shortly after midnight on the 6th at 12:19 AM.
Deluzio fought headwinds in an environment that saw Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Republican Senate nominee Dave McCormick both carrying the state. Deluzio did hold a resource advantage over Mercuri throughout the race. Then, in the last week of the election both the Democratic Congressional Committee and a Republican Super PAC pulled all their ad spend in the race giving Deluzio a 2-to-1 spending advantage.
Deluzio will serve his third two-year term, with him being up for election again in 2026.
