McKEESPORT, Pennsylvania — The Democrats‘ new national party chairman, Ken Martin, came to western Pennsylvania on Tuesday as part of a multistate tour in the Great Lakes Midwest in an effort to send a message to working-class voters that Democrats have lost in recent elections.

Martin chose McKeesport, the once-thriving working-class manufacturing city located in the heart of Mon Valley, to draw attention to a looming special election for a state House seat that was vacated by the sudden death of Democratic state Rep. Matt Gergely in January.