MONONGAHELA, Pennsylvania — Downballot primary results for seats in the Pennsylvania legislature and Congress had both parties heading into very different directions for November’s midterm election cycle. The Democrats are marching far left, and Republicans are beating back challengers from their far-right flanks.
In Washington County, in a strident race, Republican state Sen. Camera Bartolotta easily swatted down challenger Al Buchtan from her right. The activists who wanted to take her down were behind the Washington County Republican Party issuing a vote of no confidence in the race.
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But the coup organized by activists didn’t work. Bartolotta won Washington County by a wide margin.
Over in the 48th state Senate District, which covers Lebanon and parts of Berks and Lancaster counties, another incumbent Republican state senator beat a challenger to his right, with Chris Gebhard defeating challenger Clovis Crane soundly. Gebhard earned 67.4% of the vote to Carne’s 32.6%, with 92% of precincts reporting.
And in the 32nd District, which includes parts of Bedford, Fayette, Somerset, and all of Bedford County, incumbent Republican state Sen. Pat Stefano handily held off challenger Harry Young Cochran, who served terms in the state House as a Democrat but now calls himself a “MAGA conservative.”
The Democrats, on the other hand, went leftward in many of their primary races, beginning with the race for Congress. Proud Democratic Socialists of America member Chris Rabb defeated a crowd of more establishment-type primary challengers, winning his election as the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District.
“We will be with Congressman Rabb every step of the way in the fight to abolish ICE, free Palestine and win Medicare for All,” the DSA posted on X on Rabb’s win.
Rabb, a leftist state representative who called for his rivals to join him in calling the war in Gaza a “genocide,” received heavy lifting — and not just from DSA activists in Philadelphia. He also won the backing of several members of the left-wing “Squad,” the Working Families Party, and held a rally with left-wing political streamer Hasan Piker.
Alon Gur, Rabb’s campaign manager, noted in a post on X that the old-line Philadelphia party machine was “going to be replaced” after his candidate’s energizing victory. For those who paid attention to Philadelphia politics and its base for the last few years, Gur’s comments were unsurprising.
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) placed his thumb on the scale of three other Democratic House contests and came up with three winners: Janelle Stelson, Bob Harvie, and Bob Brooks. All won the party’s nominations in contested primary races.
Notably, Shapiro found himself campaigning for Brooks alongside the Working Families Party, which didn’t have an impact on the Rabb victory but brought left-wing Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner over the finish line. The polarizing views of these elected officials have kept their relationship with the governor icy.
It will be interesting to see if Brooks, a firefighter and, on paper, a seemingly picture-perfect candidate for Democrats, who have struggled with the working-class vote for decades, is now beholden to the WFP for his victory, or if he can keep them at arm’s length in the general election.
Shapiro, a talented political athlete, can expect to be dinged in his general election race against the Republican primary winner and state treasurer, Stacy Garrity, for his WFP association and his photo with Alex Soros. Both entities have politics that often clash with the more centrist Shapiro.
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Shapiro earned nearly 1.1 million Democratic primary votes to Garrity’s 630,000 Republican primary votes — a solid showing for Shapiro. But in fairness to Garrity, Democrats had many more contested primary races on the board than Republicans did. More Democrats showed up to vote than Republican primary voters.
All roads to power lead through Pennsylvania. If Democrats win the majority, Pennsylvania races will have handed that to them. But they will also hand over to them members of the Squad. And it is unclear who Lee and Rabb will badger the most — their party or the Republicans.
