Imagine losing an election to a deceased opponent! In an awkward turn of events, Tony DeLuca, a former state lawmaker in Pennsylvania found himself re-elected during the midterm elections earlier this week, despite his passing last month. Tony reportedly had a brief battle with lymphoma prior to his death on October 9 — it’s believed he had already fought the disease twice before and survived. But the third go-around had a much greater impact on him than before.
Tony, who died at the age of 85, despite his death, was re-elected on Tuesday, prompting a statement to be made by the Pennsylvania House Democrats, who shared in a tweet, “While we’re incredibly saddened by the loss of Representative Tony DeLuca, we are proud to see the voters to continue to show their confidence in him and his commitment to Democratic values by re-electing him posthumously.”
It was further mentioned that “a special election will follow soon.” Tony had accumulated around 85% of the vote, which had given him an easy win against Green Party’s Queonia “Zarah” Livingston. Twitter was quick to react to the news, with many under the impression that people continued to vote for Tony despite his passing because they didn’t find the other candidates to be worthy of placing their support behind.
“Some folks commenting that the voters here were oblivious,” one social media user said in response to the ballot error. “Some certainly were. But for others, they likely preferred the idea of a special election over electing the third-party candidate on the ballot.”
Tony had four children with his late wife, Constance, who passed away in 2021, as well as nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.