State officials announced Tuesday that a special election will be held in March to replace a Butler County state representative.

Tedd Nesbit, a Republican who represented the 8th district in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, resigned at the start of this year to begin a new role as a Mercer County Court of Common Pleas judge.

Mike Turzai, speaker of the state House, announced Tuesday that a special election will be held March 17 to fill Nesbit's old seat.

The seat covers much of the eastern half of Mercer County as well as a portion of northern Butler County.

The special election will come less than two months before the general primary on April 28, during which Democratic voters will weigh in on the presidential primary.

The special election will only fill the seat for the duration of Nesbit's current term, which expires at the end of 2020.

That means April 28's primary ballot will also ask voters to pick nominees for Nesbit's seat. Whichever candidate wins the special election could in theory lose the seat at the end of the year to the candidate who wins the general election. Alternately, the same candidate could win both.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that will appear in Wednesday's Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or print to read the full article and learn about both parties' plans for choosing who will fill the seat.