Pennsylvania
In politically riven Pennsylvania, primary voters will pick candidates in presidential contest year
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The two parties in Pennsylvania’s state House and its congressional delegation are nearly evenly divided, and that won’t change once results are in from next week’s primary election.
But come November, the candidates the parties will select April 23 for hundreds of legislative seats could alter what has been years of policy paralysis in Harrisburg and the similar partisan deadlock in Congress.
The state’s voters will also cast primary ballots for this year’s marquee contests for president and U.S. Senate. Democratic incumbents Joe Biden and Bob Casey and Republican challengers Donald Trump and Dave McCormick are shoo-ins to appear on the fall ballot.
Both parties will pick candidates for state attorney general, which was in Republican hands before Democrats went on a winning streak starting in 2012.
In the two other statewide “row office” contests, Republicans Stacy Garrity, the treasurer, and Tim DeFoor, the auditor general, will find out which Democrats will try to unseat them in the fall.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
It took months and several special elections before Democrats were able to nail down their return to majority control of the state House last year, elevating one of their own to speaker in a chamber where the partisan breakdown is now 102-100. One seat, in a Poconos district where a Republican resigned in February, is vacant and will be filled by special election on primary day.
With the entire chamber on the ballot this year, Republicans would love to flip it back, denying Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro legislative leverage in policy and budget battles.
In the state Senate, where Republicans hold a 28-22 majority, Democrats would need to flip at least three seats in order for Democratic Lt. Gov. Austin Davis’ tie-breaking vote to give them control.
Among the 25 Senate seats up this year, nearly half the total, or 12 incumbent senators, face no opponents this year.
There are contested Senate primaries in both parties for notable vacancies in a Republican-held seat in the Harrisburg area and a Democratic-held seat in Pittsburgh. The third vacancy is a Republican majority district in northern York County.
LEGISLATIVE SHAKEUP
Democratic Rep. Nick Pisciottano, of Allegheny County, is leaving the House to run, along with two other Democrats and two Republicans, for a state Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Jim Brewster, D-Allegheny.
Rep. Dawn Keefer, R-York, is departing the lower chamber in a run to succeed retiring Sen. Mike Regan, R-York. Another House departure is Rep. Patty Kim, of Dauphin County, facing off against another Democrat for the nomination in the third Senate district involving a retirement, that of Sen. John DiSanto, R-Dauphin. Two Republicans also are vying to succeed DiSanto.
DiSanto’s seat is widely seen as the Senate Democrats’ best chance for a pickup. Their longshot bid for the majority also likely would require beating Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-Erie, and Sen. Devlin Robinson, a first-term Republican whose district surrounds the western side of Pittsburgh.
Sen. Dave Argall, of Schuylkill County, who heads the GOP’s Senate campaign effort, said a razor-close win for Brewster four years ago makes that a battleground, but their efforts to stay in the majority are wider.
“There are going to be battles all across the state, but it’s still pretty early to predict which ones are going to rise to the top of the list,” Argall said.
Lawmakers in nearly half of the 203 House seats, and slightly more Democrats than Republicans, have no primary or General Election opponents this year and can plan on serving another term starting in January.
There aren’t many House vacancies this cycle: just nine seats held by Republicans and four by Democrats. Retiring members include Berks County Rep. Mark Rozzi, who spent a brief but notable time as House speaker early last year before fellow Democrats could muster the votes to elect their first choice to lead the chamber, Speaker Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia.
Reps. Ryan Mackenzie, of Lehigh County, and Rob Mercuri, of Allegheny, are relinquishing House seats to run in Republican primaries for Democratic-held congressional seats. Hedging their bets are Rep. Ryan Bizzarro, of Erie, and Rep. Jared Solomon, of Philadelphia, seeking reelection in the state House and running in Democratic primaries for state treasurer and state attorney general, respectively.
CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION
All 17 of Pennsylvania’s incumbent members of the U.S. House of Representatives are running for another term, each with at least one opponent in the primary or fall elections. Court-ordered redistricting after the 2020 Census produced a 9-8 Democratic edge, and when the incumbents ran for reelection two years ago, all 17 were reelected.
In Allegheny County, freshman U.S. Rep. Summer Lee has a Democratic primary opponent, Bhavini Patel, as well as a Republican positioned to take on the Democratic winner in November.
In a district Democrats hope to flip, a race north of Philadelphia could signal how much power the abortion issue has in the suburbs. U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a centrist Republican, has a primary opponent whose anti-abortion position would not permit exceptions for rape or incest.
There is a three-way GOP primary for the nomination to take on Lehigh Valley Democratic U.S. Rep. Susan Wild in the fall. Wild’s previous two wins were by single-digit margins. Rep. Matt Cartwright, a Democrat from the Scranton area who also has been repeatedly targeted in recent years, has no primary opponent, but a Republican looks to challenge him in November.
Six Democrats are on the primary ballot in a district held by U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, a York County Republican who was deeply involved in efforts by then-President Donald Trump to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat. Perry’s prominent role in the ultra-right Freedom Caucus in Congress and some close reelection contests over the past six years also are making him a target for Democrats this year.
STATEWIDE ROW OFFICES
After Shapiro’s election as governor two years ago created a vacancy in his former job as state attorney general, he nominated his protege, Michelle Henry, to serve through the end of this year. She is not seeking to stay in the job.
Five Democrats are running for the nomination: Philadelphia attorney Keir Bradford-Grey, former auditor general and state Rep. Eugene DePasquale, of Allegheny County, former prosecutor and Bucks County solicitor Joe Khan, Philadelphia state Rep. Jared Solomon and Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer.
Two Republicans are running: York County District Attorney Dave Sunday and state Rep. Craig Williams, of Delaware County. Sunday received his party’s endorsement, while Williams has been helping lead House Republicans’ efforts to remove from office progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat.
For auditor general, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, of Philadelphia, and Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley are the Democrats seeking to run against DeFoor in November. Kenyatta finished third in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary in 2022 won by John Fetterman.
Garrity, the state treasurer, has no opposition in the GOP primary. Democratic voters will choose between Bizzarro and Erin McClelland, an addiction recovery and human services professional from Allegheny County.
Pennsylvania
VP Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump put focus on Pennsylvania on eve of 2024 election
What to Know
- The focus is on Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes as both Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris work to get out the vote the day before Election Day.
- Harris will spend all of Monday in Pennsylvania, whose 19 electoral votes offer the largest prize among the states expected to determine the Electoral College outcome.
- Donald Trump makes four stops in three states, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan. He’ll end in Grand Rapids, where he completed his first two campaigns.
A presidential campaign that has careened through a felony trial, an incumbent president being pushed off the ticket and multiple assassination attempts comes down to a final push across a handful of states on the eve of Election Day.
Kamala Harris will spend all of Monday in Pennsylvania, whose 19 electoral votes offer the largest prize among the states expected to determine the Electoral College outcome. The vice president and Democratic nominee will visit working-class areas including Allentown and end with a late-night Philadelphia rally that includes Lady Gaga and Oprah Winfrey.
Allentown public schools were closed due to the Kamala rally that’s “expected to draw large crowds, heavy traffic, and potential disruptions that may impact the safety and security of our students and staff,” the Lehigh Valley school district said.
Donald Trump plans four rallies in three states, beginning in Raleigh, North Carolina and stopping twice in Pennsylvania with events in Reading and Pittsburgh. The Republican nominee and former president ends his campaign the way he ended the first two, with a late Monday night event in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
About 77 million Americans already have voted early, but Harris and Trump are pushing to turn out many millions more supporters on Tuesday. Either result on Election Day will yield a historic outcome.
A Trump victory would make him the first incoming president to have been indicted and convicted of a felony, after his hush-money trial in New York. He will gain the power to end other federal investigations pending against him. Trump would also become the second president in history to win non-consecutive White House terms, after Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century.
Harris is vying to become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to reach the Oval Office, four years after she broke the same barriers in national office by becoming President Joe Biden’s second in command.
The vice president ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket after Biden’s disastrous performance in a June debate set into motion his withdrawing from the race. That was just one of a series of convulsions that have hit this year’s campaign.
Trump survived by millimeters a would-be assassin’s bullet at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. His Secret Service detail foiled a second attempt in September when a gunman had set up a rifle as Trump golfed at one of his courses in Florida.
Harris, 60, has played down the historic nature of her candidacy, which materialized only after the 81-year-old president ended his reelection bid after his June debate against the 78-year-old Trump accentuated questions about Biden’s age.
Instead, Harris has pitched herself as a generational change, emphasized her support for abortion rights after the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision ending the constitutional right to abortion services, and regularly noted the former president’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Assembling a coalition ranging from progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney, Harris has called Trump a threat to democracy and late in the campaign even embraced the critique that Trump is accurately described as a “fascist.”
Heading into Monday, Harris has mostly stopped mentioning Trump. She is promising to solve problems and seek consensus, while sounding an almost exclusively optimistic tone reminiscent of her campaign’s opening days when she embraced “the politics of joy” and the campaign theme “Freedom.”
“From the very start, our campaign has not been about being against something, it is about being for something,” Harris said Sunday evening at Michigan State University.
Trump, renewing his “Make America Great Again” and “America First” slogans, has made his hard-line approach to immigration and withering criticisms of Harris and Biden the anchors of his argument for a second administration. He’s hammered Democrats for an inflationary economy, and he’s pledged to lead an economic “golden age,” end international conflicts and seal the U.S. southern border.
But Trump also has veered often into grievances over being prosecuted after trying to overturn Biden’s victory and repeatedly denigrated the country he wants to lead again as a “failed nation.” As recently as Sunday, he renewed his false claims that U.S. elections are rigged against him, mused about violence against journalists and said he “shouldn’t have left” the White House in 2021 — dark turns that have overshadowed another anchor of his closing argument: “Kamala broke it. I will fix it.”
The election is likely to be decided across seven states. Trump won Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016 only to see them flip to Biden in 2020. North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada add the Sun Belt swath of the presidential battleground map.
Trump won North Carolina twice and lost Nevada twice. He won Arizona and Georgia in 2016 but saw them slip to Democrats in 2020.
Harris’ team has projected confidence in recent days, pointing to a large gender gap in early voting data and research showing late-deciding voters have broken her way. They also believe in the strength of their campaign infrastructure. This weekend, the Harris campaign had more than 90,000 volunteers helping turn out voters — and knocked on more than 3 million doors across the battleground states. Still, Harris aides have insisted she remains the underdog.
Trump’s team has projected confidence, as well, arguing that the former president’s populist appeal will attract younger and working-class voters across racial and ethnic lines. The idea is that Trump can amass an atypical Republican coalition, even as other traditional GOP blocks — notably college-educated voters — become more Democratic.
Pennsylvania
Trump campaign rallies across Pennsylvania as Election Day approaches
PENNSYLVANIA (WPVI) — The Trump campaign rallied in two counties across Pennsylvania on Sunday as they tried to garner more support in the critical swing state before voters cast their ballots.
“A very, very special hello to Pennsylvania. What a great place,” former President Donald Trump said to a crowd of supporters at the Lancaster Airport in Lititz.
“November 5 will be the most important day in the history of our country, and together we will make America powerful again,” said Trump.
Trump spoke about strengthening the country as president while taking aim at the Democratic Party and journalists.
RELATED | With Election Day nearing, candidates continue campaigning across Pennsylvania
At one point, he referred to the bulletproof glass surrounding him and said he wouldn’t mind if someone shot through the reporters.
“We have this piece of glass here, but all we have over here is the fake news. And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news, and I don’t mind that so much,” he noted.
Trump’s campaign team defended his remarks by saying, “he was making a joke.”
In Delaware County, Senator JD Vance took the stage at Sun Center Studios in Aston.
“Pennsylvania, are we ready to take this country in a different direction? Are we ready to make Donald Trump the next president of the United States?” said Vance.
YOUR VOICE, YOUR VOTE | Check out 6abc’s Voter Guide for the upcoming presidential election
“I think a lot of energy is on Trump’s side; seems like the momentum is on Trump’s side,” said Ron Poliquin who drove to the event from Dover, Delaware.
Vance focused on key issues including the economy, immigration, border security, and crime.
“I feel like Trump and Vance really do care about the everyday person and actual Americans and not their personal agenda,” said Maria Poliquin from Dover, Delaware.
“Here is my message to Kamala Harris: We are not garbage for thinking that you’ve done a bad job, but in two days, we’re going to take out the trash in Washington, D.C.,” said Vance.
Trump will hold four more rallies on Monday before Election Day. He’ll start in North Carolina, then head to Reading and Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania before ending the day in Michigan.
The Harris campaign will also be in Philadelphia on Monday for a massive Get Out the Vote concert on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway the night before Election Day 2024.
Kamala Harris’ campaign is hosting the concert, which is set to begin at 5 p.m. Monday.
The event is expected to have performances or remarks by DJ Cassidy, Fat Joe, Freeway and Just Blaze, Lady Gaga, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Ricky Martin, The Roots, Jazmine Sullivan and Adam Blackstone, and Oprah Winfrey.
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Pennsylvania
When polls close in Pennsylvania, other battleground states on Election Day
Arizona
Polls open at 8 a.m. in Arizona, which Joe Biden carried in 2020 by 0.3%. He was only the second Democratic presidential candidate to do so in nearly 70 years. Polls will close at 9 p.m.
Arizona does not release votes until all precincts have reported or one hour after all polls are closed, whichever is first.
In 2020, The Associated Press first reported Arizona results at 10:02 p.m. ET on Nov. 3, Election Day, and declared Biden the winner at 2:51 a.m. ET on Nov. 4.
Georgia
Polls open at 7 a.m. in Georgia, which played a key role in 2020. Biden was the first Democrat in a White House race to carry the state since Bill Clinton in 1992, defeating Trump by less than one-quarter of a percentage point, a margin of 11,779 votes.
Since then, Trump’s efforts to overturn those results have been at the heart of a criminal case in Fulton County. It is on hold while his legal team pursues a pretrial appeal to have District Attorney Fani Willis removed from the case and the indictment tossed. The Georgia Court of Appeals will hear those arguments after the election.
Georgia’s polls close at 7 p.m.
In 2020, the AP first reported Georgia results at 7:20 p.m. ET on Nov. 3 and declared Biden the state’s winner at 7:58 p.m. ET on Nov. 19, more than two weeks after Election Day.
Michigan
Polls open at 7 a.m. ET in Michigan, one of the “blue wall” states that went narrowly for Trump in 2016 after almost 30 years of voting for Democratic candidates. Biden won it back four years later. His margin was about 154,000 votes out of more than 5.5 million votes.
Michigan covers two time zones, but polls in most of the state close at 8 p.m. ET, with the rest at 9 p.m. ET.
In 2020, the AP first reported Michigan results at 8:08 p.m. ET on Nov. 3 and declared Biden the winner at 5:58 p.m. ET on Nov. 4.
Nevada
Polls open at 10 a.m. ET in Nevada, the smallest electoral vote prize of the battlegrounds. But it has one of the best track records as a presidential bellwether. The candidate who won Nevada has gone on to win the White House in 27 of the past 30 presidential elections.
Polls close at 10 p.m. ET. The state doesn’t release results until the last person in line has voted, so there’s usually been a wait between poll close and the first results.
In 2020, the AP first reported Nevada results at 11:41 p.m. ET on Nov. 3 and declared Biden the winner at 12:13 p.m. ET on Nov. 7.
North Carolina
Polls open at 6:30 a.m. ET in North Carolina, which has been carried by Democrats only two times in presidential elections since 1968. But the state has stayed competitive for both major parties. Trump’s 2020 victory in North Carolina, by about 1 percentage point, was his smallest winning margin in any state.
Polls close at 7:30 p.m. ET.
In 2020, the AP first reported results at 7:42 p.m. ET on Nov. 3 and declared Trump the winner at 3:49 p.m. ET on Nov. 13.
Wisconsin
Polls open at 8 a.m. ET in Wisconsin, the third “blue wall” state in this group. Wisconsin is no stranger to close elections; the margin of victory in the state was less than 1 percentage point in 2020, 2016, 2004 and 2000.
Polls close at 9 p.m. ET.
In 2020, the AP first reported Wisconsin results at 9:07 p.m. ET on Nov. 3 and declared Biden the winner at 2:16 p.m. ET on Nov. 4.
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