Strong New Progressive Party incoming majority in Puerto Rico House of Representatives
In Puerto Rico’s election race for the at large seats in the House of Representatives, former secretary general of the New Progressive Party, María Milagros Charbonier came first with 9.44% of the electorate, tallying up 136,517 votes. The New Progressive Party was able to replicate its results in the at large senate race by winning six out of the top 11 in the at large house race. The candidates from the party entering the House next year include young newcomer Nestor Alonso, former member of the municipality assembly of Jayuya José Torres Zamora, incumbent representative José Enrique Meléndez, former majority whip of the House Lourdes Ramos, and former speaker of the House Jose Aponte.
The Popular Democratic Party got 4 at large house seats in the election. The youngest legislator serving in either the House or the Senate, incumbent representative Manuel Natal, came second in the race with 9.23% of the vote and got a total of 133,500 votes. Another incumbent, representative Brenda López de Arrarás, who serves as chairwoman of the Commissions on Women Issues & Equality and Education, Arts & Culture, placed third with 8.54% of the vote. Rounding out the top eleven are Luis Vega Ramos, ranking member of his party in the Commissions of Treasury and Capital City Development and Jesús Manuel Ortiz, the Fortaleza public affairs secretary. The sole candidate in the race representing the Puerto Rican Independence Party, Denis Márquez Lebron, a former member of the Board of Directors of Legal Services of Puerto Rico, received 8.33% of the vote and came fourth in total vote count.
Among those who missed out on getting an at large representative seat were Jorge Colberg Toro the current Secretary for Public Affairs for Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, recently resigned speaker of the House Jaime Perelló, and PPT candidate Félix Córdova Iturregui.
The 11 candidates assuming office next year and their vote percentages are depicted below.
In total 1,578,159 ballots were from 2,867,557 registered voters in Puerto Rico for a 55.03% turnout.
