Pennsylvania Democrats hope to flip Republican-held seats once they settle toss-up primaries

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democrats in Pennsylvania will settle primary fights on Tuesday to shape their congressional slate for the fall election when they hope to capture the state’s four swing districts and ultimately a U.S. House majority.

Gov. Josh Shapiro and national Democrats are promoting their chosen candidates over progressive rivals, the latest example of a fissure that has divided the party as it grasps for a path back to power in Washington.

Three of the four swing districts have contested Democratic primaries, in addition to a wide-open primary contest in Philadelphia that will almost surely anoint the next seatholder.

The campaigns will put Pennsylvania on the front lines of Democratic efforts to retake control of Congress and block the last two years of President Donald Trump’s agenda.

They will also test Shapiro’s influence ahead of a possible White House campaign. He’s heavily favored to win reelection over Republican candidate Stacy Garrity, the state treasurer, so Shapiro is putting his clout on the line in primaries that will determine his party’s chances in November.

Contested primaries in swing seats

Three of Democrats’ primary fights are in swing districts held by Republican U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Ryan Mackenzie and Scott Perry.

Shapiro and the House Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, have teamed up to endorse the same candidate in each of those three contested primaries.

Washington U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, the chair of the DCCC, said the party wanted “top tier” candidates who were the strongest to take on Republican incumbents.

Two of those — Janelle Stelson and Bob Harvie — are facing opponents on the left, while another, Bob Brooks, is in a four-way primary contest.

Stelson, a former local television anchor and personality, is running in Perry’s south central Pennsylvania district and competing for the nomination with Justin Douglas, a progressive minister and a Dauphin County commissioner.

In Fitzpatrick’s district in suburban Philadelphia, Bob Harvie, a Bucks County commissioner, is up against Lucia Simonelli, a first-time candidate and climate activist.

Brooks’ primary is for the right to challenge Mackenzie in the Allentown-area seat. He’s facing former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell, former Northampton County executive Lamont McClure and former legislative aide Carol Obando-Derstine.

Democrats see opportunity

In 2018, the last midterm election cycle under Trump, Pennsylvania Democrats flipped four Republican-held congressional seats. In 2024, Perry and Mackenzie’s margins of victory were among the slimmest in that year’s House races — smaller than the margin by which Trump won those districts in the presidential election.

Fitzpatrick won more comfortably, but he is just one of three House Republicans elected in districts that also backed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Fitzpatrick and Perry are perennial targets of Democrats, and have survived repeatedly. However, Mackenzie is a freshman in his first reelection test.

Without Trump on the ballot, Democrats hope they can capitalize on weaker Republican turnout. Shapiro won the same districts in 2022, and he’s on the top of the party’s ticket this year.

A Philadelphian will go to Washington

In Philadelphia, the Democratic primary for a seat in Congress there is widely viewed as a toss-up among three candidates.

No Republican is seeking that party’s nomination, making the Democratic primary winner a shoo-in to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Dwight Evans.

It features a familiar name to many in the city: Sharif Street, a state senator, former state party chairman and son of the city’s former two-term mayor, John F. Street. He is backed by Mayor Cherelle Parker, former Gov. Ed Rendell and the city’s building trades unions.

A state lawmaker, Rep. Chris Rabb, was endorsed by progressive stalwarts U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and online streamer Hasan Piker and has drawn financial backing from the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Dr. Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon who started a Black doctors’ consortium during the COVID-19 pandemic, was helped by millions of dollars from 314 Action, a left-leaning political action committee aimed at electing scientists to Congress.

Democrats hope for top-of-the-ticket help

For Shapiro, the election year is an opportunity to show his political strength in a premier battleground state should he decide to run for president in 2028.

In addition to trying to win his own race, Shapiro is aiming to help Democrats flip key Republican-held U.S. House seats in Pennsylvania and deliver Democratic control of the state Legislature to advance his own agenda.

Shapiro is on track to break his own campaign spending record and, in a step to help races up and down the ballot, has plunged more than $900,000 so far this election cycle into the state Democratic Party’s accounts.

Republicans acknowledge Shapiro’s electoral strength, and many in the party hope that Garrity can at least make it a close contest to help protect other Republicans on the ballot.

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