President Donald Trump, at left, watches as U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, of Butler, R-3rd Dist., chants "USA, USA" during a rally the Erie Insurance Arena on Oct. 10. Thousands turned out to fill the arena for the president.

In a year of big Democratic wins in the U.S. House, Butler County’s contributions to that governing body remained quite red in the 2018 election.

A redrawn congressional map in Pennsylvania split the formerly united Butler County into three pieces, each shared with neighboring counties.

The incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, a Republican, won re-election, but his former constituency was replaced by the new 16th Congressional District. After 2018, he was to represent only the western half of Butler County.

To the east, another Republican incumbent, U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, found himself running — and winning — in a new 15th District that included about half of Butler County.

There were two indications of nationwide trends coming to the county on Election Night. In its southeastern corner, a blip of land belonging to the 17th District was won by Democrat Conor Lamb, who first took office after winning a special election for the 18th District in March.

The other was a nail-biting night for Kelly. The race was close enough that President Donald Trump visited the district in October to stump for Kelly in Erie.

Democrats didn’t even run a candidate against the 70-year-old in 2016, but Kelly beat Democrat Ron DiNicola by only 4 percentage points in 2018.