Pennsylvania’s Senate wants an earlier 2024 presidential primary, partly to have a say on nominees

Pennsylvania’s state Senate approved a bill Wednesday to move up the state’s 2024 primary election by five weeks to March 19, aiming to avoid a conflict with the Jewish holiday of Passover and give voters more of a say in deciding presidential nominees.

The bill passed, 45-2, although it still requires passage in the state House of Representatives.

Under the bill, the primary election would move from April 23 to March 19, the same primary date as in Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Arizona. Still, that date comes after primaries in other big delegate states, including California, Texas, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts and Tennessee.

Under that scenario, Pennsylvania would leap over New York, Delaware, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

Democrats have warned that the change would compress the primary calendar, giving courts and counties less time to handle election-related duties.

Pennsylvania is a premier battleground in presidential elections, but state law sets its primary date relatively late in the presidential primary calendar and it hasn’t hosted a competitive presidential primary since 2008.

“Here we are, the fifth-most registered voters in the country not having input into who the candidates are for our parties. This bill gives Pennsylvania citizens a voice at the beginning of the process, because it always comes down to us at the end of the process,” Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, told colleagues during floor remarks.