The political parties have made their choices and the field is set for the special election on March 25 in Pennsylvania’s 36th Senatorial District.

After the departure of Sen. Ryan Aument to become state director for U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, the respective parties selected their nominees in votes by the county GOP and Democratic parties.

Republican committee members tabbed Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons, who received 119 of a possible 197 votes to outdistance Rep. Brett Miller (R-41).

“I am honored to earn the nomination for the upcoming special election for State Senate,” he tweeted. “We have a great team and we will work hard over the next two months to win the general election on March 25!”

Democrats chose East Petersburg mayor James Andrew Malone by a two-thirds majority over Ephrata librarian Matthew Good.

The Libertarian Party announced that Zachary Moore, a geographic information systems analyst from Mount Joy, would be their representative for the special election.

The election appears to be Parsons’ to lose, as Republicans comprise 53 percent of the district’s 184,527 registered voters, compared to 30 percent for Democrats.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of State, residents have until March 10 to register and until March 18 to request an absentee or mail-in ballot.

The 36th Senatorial District comprises part of Lancaster County consisting of the townships of Conoy, Earl, East Donegal, East Hempfield, Elizabeth, Ephrata, Manheim, Mount Joy, Penn, Rapho, Warwick, West Donegal, West Earl and West Hempfield and the boroughs of Akron, Columbia, East Petersburg, Elizabethtown, Ephrata, Lititz, Manheim, Marietta, Mount Joy, Mountville and New Holland.

Steve Ulrich is the managing editor of PoliticsPA.

This article was originally published in PoliticsPA.