Incumbent Republican Rep. Alec Ryncavage was reelected for a second two-year term in the Pennsylvania 119th Legislative District race after defeating his opponent Democrat Megan Kocher by a large margin, according to the unofficial election results.
Ryncavage received 16,883 total votes, which equates to 64.49% of votes casted, or nearly two-thirds of the unofficial vote count, according to Luzerne County election returns. Kocher received 9,297 votes, equal to 35.51% of the vote count.
Ryncavage declared victory Tuesday night with his supporters at an Election Night watch party celebration at the Six String Saloon.
“I am extremely grateful to the people in the 119th District for their support,” Ryncavage said. “Since my first election in 2022, I’ve made it a priority to be accessible, be present, and be fair to all of our communities – always putting people before politics. Coming out of this election, I’m honored to have the opportunity to continue this work, and I look forward to building on what we achieved together over the last two years.”
During his upcoming term, Ryncavage said he plans to continue investing in local communities and building his coalition of Democrats and Republicans, as he was the first Republican in history to flip this seat when he was elected two years ago.
One specific project he plans to launch is the regionalization of the Edwardsville and Larksville police departments.
“Having individual police departments across our communities can be troublesome for the budgets of these small municipalities, so when we can consolidate our resources, we can actually save taxpayer dollars and increase the level of those services,” he said.
Ryncavage’s feat did not come without its obstacles, however. Less than a month before Election Day, 6,700 mail-in ballots needed to be reissued and resubmitted by voters after Ryncavage’s name was misspelled on the ballots as “Tyncavage.”
“I don’t think any party involved wanted that issue to happen, but certainly, it did, and so my perspective on it was to hold my head held high and continue campaigning hard and continuing the work,” he said. “We are still going to be going through the adjudication process with Luzerne County making sure that every vote is counted and is counted only once.”
This not only impacted Ryncavage, but it impacted his political opponent Kocher as well. Misspelled mail-in ballots for Ryncavage and Kocher alike had to be discarded, and correct ballots had to be resubmitted by voters.
“I was very upset to see that the mistake was made,” Kocher said. “At the end of the day, what it comes down to is voter confusion. I’ve been talking to so many voters who were confused about which ballot to submit.”
On Election Day, ballots with the misspelling remained in the mix, although those ballots were supposed to remain segregated. Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo told 28/22 News on Tuesday that the Luzerne County Bureau of Elections was working with the Board of Elections and the Department of State to mitigate the issue.
Ryncavage, however, has persevered through challenges and defied expectations since he was first elected in 2022, when he became one of the youngest representatives in Pennsylvania history at only 21 years old.
He acknowledged that to be a young person in office, you need to be humble and willing to be mentored.
“A lot of people thought two years ago when I was coming into office as one of the youngest that that can pose a problem,” Ryncavage said. “Being a young person, people are quick to assume you don’t have the experience or you don’t have the ability, but we have shown that being youthful in government, you can actually do some wonderful things.”
He said that being a young person in office can have advantages like being able to bring new perspectives and to have the energy to enjoy going to different places across the district.
In this year’s election the now-23-year-old Ryncavage ran against 25-year-old Kocher, another young politician and Wilkes University aluma. As Ryncavage noted, the combined ages of him and his opponent would still be younger than the average age in the U.S. Congress.
“I’m talking to people who are just so excited to see younger people getting involved,” Kocher said.
Ryncavage will continue to represent a population 63,187 throughout the city of Nanticoke, boroughs of Ashley, Edwardsville, Larksville, Plymouth, Sugar Notch, and Warrior Run, and the townships of Fairview, Hanover, Newport, Plymouth, Rice, and Wright.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, he will receive an annual salary of $106,422.
Efforts to reach Crocamo and the Luzerne County Bureau of Elections for additional comments were unsuccessful.
