The Butler County Republican Committee met Saturday to endorse candidates in upcoming primary races, a first for the political organization.

Al Lindsay, the committee's chairman, said they hope the new practice will increase the county's power among state conservatives.

“We want to be the 800-pound gorilla in Western Pennsylvania,” Lindsay said.

The Republicans involved went systematically through every race that will appear on April 28's primary ballot ranging from state representative positions up through the U.S. presidency.

Committee members voted whether or not to endorse a candidate in each race, then heard speeches from supporters and the candidates themselves lobbying members one way of the other.

The committee opted to endorse someone in every race, but only a few were actually contested. In those cases, committee members from the relevant district entered a side room to cast ballots on who they would prefer to endorse.

The most heated endorsement pick decided in this manner was the race between incumbent Marci Mustello, who represents the state's 11th District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and her primary challenger Ryan Covert, a businessman and retired boxer.

About 60 percent of the committee's votes went to Mustello, so she won the group's endorsement.

For his pitch speech, Covert stood in a red “Make America Great Again” hat and a “Captain America” T-shirt, which he has co-opted into a campaign image. He pitched himself as an everyman.

“I know I'm not an insider of this party, but I'm everything this party stands for,” Covert said.

Mustello boasted of her record in office. She's been in the state House for a little under a year after winning a special election last spring. She described herself as “holding the line” on taxes.

“This is a serious job for serious people,” Mustello said.

Whichever candidate wins is set to face Democrat Sam Doctor in November.

Another contested race, one that President Donald Trump himself has weighed in on, brought two Republican candidates to the meeting. The committee opted to endorse Sean Parnell for the state's 17th U.S. House of Representative seat over Jesse James Vodvarka. Both men attended and gave speeches.

Parnell is posed to combat incumbent Democrat Conor Lamb in November.

The race to replace Tedd Nesbit, who recently resigned from his post as state representative for the 8th District, saw the third and final contested decision of the meeting. The committee picked Tim Bonner, a Mercer County attorney, over Scott Jaillet, a Grove City council member.

Bonner was previously also nominated to run as the Republican in the March 17 special election for the seat, but that term ends at the end of the year.

His Democrat opponent in both the March special election and the November general election is Phil Heasley.

Both Daryl Metcalfe and Scott Timko were nominated to be endorsed for the 12th district in the state house. Timko's name was brought up because he will appear on the April ballot, but no one spoke in support of him and the endorsement went to Metcalfe. Metcalfe, a career state representative, will likely face Democrat Daniel Smith Jr. in November.

Other than those, the committee endorsed several unopposed candidates.

Lindsay said at the meeting's start that he would not allow any nominations for write-in candidates.

Two members of the U.S. Congress attended to speak. Those were U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, and U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-15th. They're set to run against Democrats Kristy Gnibus and Robert Williams, respectively.

The committee unanimously endorsed President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for re-election.