Lebanon County election results: Gebhard retains 48th District state Senate seat
Republican Sen. Christopher Gebhard retained the 48th state Senate district seat with a majority of votes in Tuesday’s election.
Gebhard, a resident of North Cornwall, took office in 2021 through a special election after Sen. Dave Arnold died of brain cancer. The 48th District has been redistricted since Gebhard initially took office, and now covers Lebanon and parts of Lancaster and Berks counties.
Gebhard’s opponent, Calvin Clements, a retired veterinarian residing in South Londonderry Township, also ran in the 2021 special election.
With 100% of precincts reporting throughout all three counties, Gebhard held the lead with 69% of the vote.
Gebhard declared victory during a phone interview shortly after all Lebanon County precincts reported their results.
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"We're certainly excited with the results. It was kind of a rematch from last year, and the result has only improved from where we were last year," Gebhard said. "That was a great compliment to us and to our team in terms of the job that we have done over these last 18 months. It's just a directive from the electorate that we need to continue to do the job that we have done."
During his special election campaign, Gebhard ran hard on reopening the economy and election reform. He now feels that election reform is the most important issue facing his office, according to prior reporting from Lebanon Daily News.
He believes that in-person and mail-in voters should be treated equally and that signature verification should be required to cast ballots.
He is also in favor of scrapping ACT 77 and putting in place voter ID laws.
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Gebhard is pro-life and against new gun control measures. On guns, he wants to focus on funding mental health programs and better enforcing current laws regarding the illegal possession and sale of firearms.
Recently, Gebhard has written legislation to improve personal financial literacy throughout the commonwealth. The bill, if passed, would require high school students to take a half-credit financial literacy course in order to graduate.
"I think that the American public as a whole honestly fails when we look at the financial education and the financial decisions that they make," he said. "Setting them up with the skills that they need in the high school setting and beyond will just pay great dividends for the commonwealth going forward."
Gebhard said that passing that bill is his passion and goal coming into his new term.
"Well, I lost," Clements said the day after the election. "But that wasn't unexpected, I mean, the redistricted 48 was turned into 27% Democrat, 1% minority and the balance, Republicans. So, highly gerrymandered against a fair race."
"In the process of redistricting, some districts win and some districts are sacrificed. We were the sacrificial lamb."
He later used examples of the Fetterman and Shapiro campaigns winning the state despite low levels of support in the 48th to reinforce his claim that it was developed to be a Republican heavy district.
Daniel Larlham Jr. is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at DLarlham@LDNews.com or on Twitter @djlarlham
This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Gebhard retains 48th District state Senate seat
