Daugherty Wins Democratic Nomination for 15th

Rick Daugherty, chairman of the Lehigh County Democratic Party, won the right to oppose U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent in the general election in November with his Democratic primary election victory over attorney Jackson Eaton on Tuesday.

Daugherty won the Democratic nomination for the 15th Congressional District by an unofficial 18 percent margin, according to published reports. That margin held in unofficial returns posted on the Lehigh and Northampton county election Web sites.

Daugherty, a Lowhill Township resident who is also the executive director of the Lehigh County Senior Center, won despite being outspent by a 10-1 margin by Eaton, who raised about $200,000 by early April, according to The Express Times.

Eaton conceded the race before 11 p.m. at a South Whitehall restaurant where both men watched returns. In his televised concession speech, Eaton held that “Rick Daugherty can and will beat Congressman Dent.”

Dent is a four-term incumbent who has never won a General Election by less than 10 percent since he was first elected in 2004.

The redrawn 15th Congressional District includes all of Lehigh County and parts of Northampton County including most of the city of Bethlehem, Hellertown, Lower Saucon Township and Lower Nazareth Township. The district also extends as far west as the Susquehanna River to include parts of Berks, Lebanon and Dauphin counties.