Pennsylvania primaries 2024: Lee and Fitzpatrick survive, matchups set for November

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.


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Pennsylvanians feel more positive about the national economy than the PA economy

Given the way Pennsylvanians feel about the economy in the commonwealth, Tia, whoever makes the ballot in the state treasurer race may have their work cut out for them. Pennsylvania voters are more optimistic about the direction of the U.S. economy than voters in other swing states, according to a GBAO/Fabrizio Lee/Wall Street Journal poll from March. Thirty percent of Pennsylvanians said the U.S. economy has gotten better in the last two years, the highest of the seven swing states surveyed. However, voters are less happy with how things are going in the commonwealth; just 20 percent said that the Pennsylvania economy has gotten better over the last two years, fewer than all but one of the states included in the survey (Arizona, in which 19 percent said things had gotten better).

—Mary Radcliffe, 538


ABC News projects that Sunday will win the Republican nomination for attorney general

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


McClelland has a surprising lead in the Democratic state treasurer race

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


Lee projected to win renomination

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


Candidates of color to watch

We'll be keeping an eye on how candidates of color perform in tonight's House primaries. Racial diversity in Congress has steadily grown over the past two decades, with nonwhite representatives skewing heavily Democratic. In today's races, six candidates of color are running in Democratic primaries compared with four Republican hopefuls.

In the Pittsburgh-area 12th District, Democratic Rep. Summer Lee is seeking a second term after winning a fiercely contested primary by less than 1,000 votes in 2022, when she became the first Black woman to be elected to Congress from Pennsylvania. This year, she faces a primary challenge from Bhavini Patel, an Indian-American small business owner and Edgewood Borough Council member. Patel has aligned herself as a more moderate, pro-Israel foil to Lee, a member of The Squad — a group composed entirely of young progressives of color — who was heavily targeted by AIPAC in her first congressional bid.

Democratic Rep. Dwight Evans, another Black incumbent, is facing a primary challenger in Tracey Gordon, former Philadelphia register of wills. The majority Black, deep-blue 3rd District spans much of central and west Philadelphia, where tonight's winner is all but guaranteed to win the seat in November. The scandal-embroiled Gordon is an underdog candidate here, though she has some experience with that: She defeated a 40-year incumbent in the 2019 primary on the way to becoming the city's register of wills, but lost her reelection bid last May.

A six-way Democratic primary in the 10th District includes Harrisburg City Council member Shamaine Daniels and Blake Lynch, a former local radio executive. Daniels was the Democratic nominee in 2022, but was defeated by Republican Rep. Scott Perry, the former chair of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus. Whoever wins tonight will face Perry in November.

On the Republican side, attorney Maria Montero is one of three Republicans vying to face 7th District Democratic Rep. Susan Wild in what is anticipated to be a highly competitive general election. Entrepreneur Aaron Bashir, former Army chaplain Alfeia Goodwin and business executive James Hayes are each running unopposed in today's Republican primaries in their districts. All three are assured a spot on the ballot in November, but face long odds against Democratic incumbents in solidly blue districts.

—Irena Li, 538