Shusterman Has Wide Lead Over Walters In House District 157 Race

This story was update at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. Watch for more updates.

TREDYFFRIN TOWNSHIP, PA — Rep. Melissa Shusterman (D-157th) is still ahead of Brian Walters in the race to represent Pennsylvania's 157th House District, and by late Friday her lead of 27 percentage points remained solid.

Shusterman was shown with 63.22 percent of the vote on Friday night, and Walters with 36.78 percent.

Chester County announced Friday night it had finished counting all ballots in its possession and would on Monday morning resume reviewing and tabulating "additional pre-canvass, canvass, computation, and provisional ballots."

Shusterman seeks reelection in the 157th District. County reports Wednesday afternoon showed her with a lead of 19 percentage points against Republican Walters and that wide lead expanded by 8 points by Thursday, and remained at that margin as Friday's tally came in.

Shusterman had 20,032 votes and Walters had 11,655 votes after the Friday count and update, according to the state's reporting of county races. The county's tallies included 28 write-in votes.

PA House District 157 includes Tredyffrin Township, Schuylkill Township, Upper Providence Township and three wards in Phoenixville.

Chester County's Elections Office reported Thursday morning it had worked 24-hours-a-day after polls closed to count votes, and had tallied all in-person and mail-in ballots received by Thursday. The county awaits the receipt of ballots that have been postmarked on Election Day, but may be in the hands of USPS right now. Chester County will count those votes starting Friday morning, elections officials said.

The Pennsylvania state VotesPa website shows that mail-in ballots were request by voters registered as Democrats in numbers almost three times that of mail-in ballots requested by Republican Party-registered voters.

Get up-to-the minute election results; subscribe to Patch news alerts.

In 2018 Democrat Shustermann beat out Republican Warren Kampf. In that race, Schustermann garnered 56.6 percent of the vote and Kampf claimed 43.3 percent.

Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives are elected to two-year terms, but there are no term limits.

Shusterman, 53, is a Conestoga High School graduate and worked in video production before she ran for office. She said she ran in 2018 to challenge the "good old boys' club." She has focused on getting pandemic relief to families in her district.

Walters, 63, graduated from Phoenixville High School. He has run a family business and ran with a focus on Law and Order. He was Schuylkill Township supervisor for 11 years.

The two candidates responded to Patch's request to complete a candidate profile before the election, and those can be read for Shusterman here and for Walters here.

For full coverage of the election in Pennsylvania, go here.