538 tracked congressional and downballot primary races in the Keystone State.
Pennsylvania is already in the thick of campaign season for November's presidential and U.S. Senate races, but on April 23, Democrats and Republicans in the Keystone State chose their candidates in a slate of other consequential races down the ballot this fall.
Among the key races to watch: a couple of incumbent House members — progressive Democrat Summer Lee and moderate Republican Brian Fitzpatrick — both fended off challengers from their right, and ballots are now set for a few other consequential contests that could help determine control of the House next year. Plus, some key battle lines for control of the state government in November are set, with the parties finalizing their candidates for attorney general, auditor, treasurer and both chambers of the state legislature.
538 reporters and contributors broke down the election results as they came in with live updates, analysis and commentary. Read our full live blog below.
ABC News has projected that Dave Sunday will win the Republican nomination for attorney general and will run for the open seat in November. Sunday currently has 66 percent of the vote, with 31 percent of the expected vote reporting. On the Democratic side, Eugene DePasquale is leading with 39 percent, and 54 percent of the expected vote reporting.
—Monica Potts, 538
In one of tonight's competitive statewide races, Pittsburgh-area small business owner Erin McClelland is in the lead over Erie State Rep. Ryan Bizzarro on the back of the mail-in vote from Allegheny County. With around 40 percent of the expected vote in, McClelland is leading with around 57 percent to 43 percent of the vote, according to the state election returns site. Bizzarro may close in on this lead, since he's doing better in other parts of the state — but he's only barely in the lead there as well. (For example, he's up by less than 3 points in Philly and losing by 8 points in Bucks.)
Bizzarro has the state party's nomination and state campaign finance reports show that he outspent McClelland $348,000 to $23,000 in the cycle! This is an impressive showing. It may say something about regional power dynamics in the state, since Bizzarro is one of the few candidates in today's statewide contests who doesn't hail from either the Philly or Pittsburgh regions.
—Tia Yang, 538
ABC News reports that Lee is projected to defeat Patel in the 12th District Democratic primary. She currently leads 59 percent to 41 percent with 73 percent of the expected vote reporting. Lee is the first member of the progressive group of House members known as The Squad to face a primary challenge this cycle, but she's turned back her opposition. She will be easily favored to win in November in a seat that Biden would've carried by 20 points in 2020.
—Geoffrey Skelley, 538
As Geoffrey just mentioned, Summer Lee is leading her primary challenger, Bhavini Patel, in the 12th District. Political science research actually finds that incumbent women in Congress are more likely to face challengers than incumbent men. This is due to several factors, such as a history of women's underrepresentation which gives the impression that female incumbents are more vulnerable; this leads to higher quality challengers, too.
—Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor
