Dixon, Schroeder Race In PA House 29: Schroeder Poised For Win

WARMINSTER, PA — An ex-staffer of an outgoing state representative looked to be taking her former boss's job Tuesday night in the Pennsylvania state House District 29 seat.

Meghan Schroeder formerly worked in the office of 16-year state Rep. Bernie O’Neill, who halted his re-election effort in August to care for an ailing family member. Schroeder was appointed by Bucks County Republicans to fill his post.

Patch will be updating this story throughout Election Night. Come back Tuesday evening for real-time results in this race.

She faced off against Democrat Andrew Dixon, a Centennial School District board member and official with the American Federation of Teachers who is a faculty member at Rowan University.

With 28 of 29 precincts reporting around 11:45 p.m., Schroeder held a commanding lead of 15,478 to 14,173, in unofficial results.

The two campaigns clashed over Schroeder declining to take part in a League of Women Voters candidate forum for the seat, which represents a span of Bucks County from Warminster to the south up to Buckingham in the north.

Her campaign said she could not attend due to a scheduling conflict, while Dixon argued that voters deserve to hear from their candidates when a seat is due to change hands for the first time since 2002.

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The district has historically leaned Republican. In 2016, O'Neill defeated challenger Larry Mullins in a decisive, 22,018 to 13,529 vote. But in this year's primary, the numbers were closer. O'Neill, who was unopposed, received 4,331 votes in the GOP primary while Dixon, also unopposed, drew 4,062 Democratic votes.

Photos courtesy Schroeder, Dixon campaigns