Two Schuylkill County residents will represent the 17th Congressional District as delegates at their party’s respective national convention in July. The district includes all of Schuylkill County and parts of Carbon, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe and Northampton counties.
Carolyn L. Bonkoski, West Brunswick, is one of three Republicans who will represent the district at the Republican National Convention held July 18 to 21 in Cleveland, Ohio. The other two delegates for the district are Teresa Lynette Villano, West Pittson, Luzerne County, and Gloria Lee Snover, Bethlehem Township, Northampton County. All three will be supporting Donald Trump for president.
Bonkoski and Snover had publicly stated they would support Trump while Snover said she would support the candidate that receives the most votes in the district, which ended up being Trump.
Mary Beth Dougherty, Girardville; Paul M. Defabo, Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County; and Thomas Whitehead, Tunkhannock Township, Monroe County, were picked as the three alternate delegates. They were the only three candidates.
Meanwhile, Guy T. Anthony, Shenandoah, is one of seven Democrats who will represent the district at the Democratic National Convention held July 25 to 28 in Philadelphia. He supports Bernie Sanders for president.
The other three male delegates representing the district and the candidate they support for president are John Ferguson, Sanders; Edward O’Brien, Hillary Clinton; and William Courtwright, Clinton. The three female delegates and the candidate they support are Grace McGregor Kramer, Clinton; Jennifer Newland, Clinton; and Susan Maureen Hall, Sanders.
Courtney Washo, Scranton, was picked as an alternate. She was the only candidate.
There were 13 Democratic candidates in the district. Anthony was the only one from Schuylkill County. He received the third most votes in the district for the men and second most in Schuylkill County. He had 5,842 votes in the county and 34,594 in the district.
There was a total of 11 Republican candidates in the district. Bonkoski was one of six Republican candidates from the county. She received the most votes in Schuylkill County and second most for the district. She had 7,970 votes in the county and 23,592 in the district. Villano had the most votes in the district with 23,902.
“I am very, very excited. I worked very hard because I want to see Donald Trump be our next president,” Bonkoski said.
She said she had many people working the polls throughout the district and said her support for Trump since the beginning was why she was the top vote getter in the county and second in the district.
Northampton County only had 90 percent of its districts reporting by press time, according to the Department of State.
All results are unofficial until certified by the county election boards.
The delegate selection process is different in every state and for each of the two major parties.
Pennsylvania will have 71 Republican delegates at the National Convention. That includes 14 at-large, 54 congressional district and three committee members, according to the GOP website at www.gop.com.
At-large delegates are statewide delegates. Each state receives 10 at-large delegates, plus additional delegates based on the state’s past Republican electoral successes.
Congressional district delegates must be residents of and selected in the primary election by the congressional district they represent. Each state gets three delegates per district.
Republican National Committee members are automatic delegates and include the state’s national committeeman, national committeewoman and state chair.
On the Democratic side, Pennsylvania will send 210 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. About half of the delegates (127) are selected by the congressional district. Each district has pledged delegates whose names appear on the Democratic primary ballots. Pledged candidates have declared their support for a particular candidate.
The number of delegates per congressional district is based on a formula that includes voter turnout in the past three presidential primaries. These delegates are then awarded to candidates based on results in the primary.
Delegates are also equally split by gender.
The state party selects 62 at-large delegates who are selected by state party leadership. They are proportionally allocated to candidates who receive at least 15 percent of statewide votes.
There are also 21 “superdelegates” who are free to vote for any candidate. This group includes top party leaders and elected officials, like members of the Democratic National Committee, party representatives in Congress, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and Gov. Tom Wolf.
The 17th Congressional District will send seven delegates, four men and three women. There were 13 candidates, seven men and six women, on the ballots.