Lori Mizgorski defeats Jake Roberts in GOP primary in state Senate 38th District race

Unofficial election results from Tuesday’s primary election show Lori Mizgorski has won the Republican nomination in the state 38th Senatorial District race.

With 97.2% of the votes counted at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Mizgorski, 55, of Shaler had 15,673 votes and Jake Roberts, 31, of Ross had 7,375 votes.

Mizgorski will challenge the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Lindsey Williams, 38, of West View in November’s general election.

The Tribune-Review was unable to reach either Republican candidate for comment.

Both candidates had similar views on abortion following the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion showing the overturn of Roe v. Wade and returning to states the power to regulate abortion.

Mizgorski was elected as state representative of the 30th District in 2018. With the recent redistricting after the census, Shaler was taken out of the 30th District.

Mizgorski said she is passionate about funding education, expanding health care access and protecting taxpayers.

She also said she wants to ensure safety in communities by continuing to fund police and finding ways to recruit more people to become officers. There are fewer and fewer people who want to work in law enforcement, she said.

Mizgorski said she has been working to make tele-health visits accessible, especially regarding mental health issues. She said she has helped push legislation that brought transparency and lower costs of prescription drugs.

Roberts, who has not held an elected position, ran to ensure core conservative values were being addressed.

He served for three years on the Ross Township Building Appeals Board. He worked as an assistant public defender in Allegheny County from 2017 to 2020. He currently is the chief public defender in Clarion County.

Among his top priorities on his platform were banning most abortions, eliminating critical race theory in schools, ridding vaccine mandates and repealing voting law Act 77.

“When I found out those were the only two candidates on ballot, I decided I needed to step up to the plate and make sure those important conservative issues were discussed,” he said.