By: David G. Greineder, IOM, ABC Pennsylvania Director of Government Affairs
Election Aftershock
Van Halen said in 1995, we are, “livin’ with the aftershock.” The Pennsylvania primary election has come and gone. As with any election, there were some surprising and some not-so surprising results.
Starting with federal offices, John Fetterman easily won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate with nearly 60% of the vote. On the Republican side, Dr. Mehmet Oz has about a 1,000 vote lead over David McCormick. Because the results were under 0.5%, an automatic recount is underway. At the time of this Starting with federal offices, John Fetterman easily won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate with nearly 60% of the vote. On the Republican side, David McCormick conceded the race in early June to Dr. Oz. The automatic recount confirmed that Dr. Oz won by just under 1,000 votes.
For U.S. House seats, there was no drama or upsets. All Republican and Democratic incumbents won. There were a handful of notable primary races:
- In the Sixth Congressional District (southeast PA), Guy Ciarrocchi won the Republican primary to face-off against incumbent Democrat Chrissy Houlahan. Guy was running for governor before he withdrew to focus on a congressional run.
- In the Seventh Congressional District (Lehigh Valley), Lisa Scheller won the Republican primary to run against incumbent Democrat Susan Wild.
- In the open Twelfth Congressional District (Pittsburgh), state representative Summer Lee bucked party establishment and won the Democratic nomination. She will face Republican Michael Doyle in the general election.
- In the open Seventeenth Congressional District (southwest PA), Republican Jeremy Shaffer will face Democrat Chris Deluzio in the general election.
All the hype this election cycle centered around the Republican nomination for governor. As the polls indicated, Doug Mastriano handily won the Republican nomination with 588,000 votes, or 44%. Of the eight other candidates, the next closest was Lou Barletta at 272,000 votes, or 20%. Mr. Mastriano will face-off against Josh Shapiro, who was unopposed for the Democratic nomination and received over 1.1 million votes.
For Lt. Governor, Austin Davis won the Democratic nomination and was endorsed by Josh Shapiro. On the Republican side, Carrie Lewis DelRosso was the winner of the Republican primary. She is a one-term state representative that was caught up in the re-districting process and chose to run for Lt. Governor instead of her House seat.
There were seven incumbents who lost their primary elections to challengers. Notably, the Republican House and Senate Appropriations Committee chairmen lost their elections to candidates running farther to the right. On the Democratic side, there were two incumbents in the Philadelphia region that lost their election to candidates that were more progressive. Counting retirements, losses, and those that were running for higher office, there will be a minimum of 54 freshman legislators entering office in December.
Now that the election is over, ABC Pennsylvania leadership will meet to discuss the election results and map out where we want to focus our political resources. There is no doubt this election will have an impact on our advocacy work next year. We need EVERYONE to be an active participant and voter.
Continuing with Van Halen’s Aftershock lyrics, “…and it ain’t going to change, it ain’t going away…”
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Posted June 7, 2022
