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WARMINSTER, Pa. (AP) — Democrats in Pennsylvania backed by Gov. Josh Shapiro won their primaries Tuesday to shape a congressional slate in which they hope to flip the state’s four swing districts and, ultimately, capture a U.S. House majority.
Janelle Stelson, Bob Harvie and Bob Brooks won the party’s nomination in three swing districts where Democrats had a contested primary for the right to take on Republican seat-holders in November.
All were endorsed by Shapiro, the Democratic governor who is putting his clout on the line in trying to help flip the House seats and also deliver Democratic control of the state Legislature to advance his own agenda.
Speaking to a primary night crowd, Shapiro — considered a potential White House contender in 2028 — spent a considerable amount of his speech attacking President Donald Trump and a Republican Congress that he said is weak, serves Trump’s will and gives Trump a free pass on wrongdoing and corruption.
“The only way we can expect to change this is to win in November and bring some accountability back to our nation’s capital,” Shapiro told the crowd in an event space that was once a centrifuge where the U.S. Navy tested G-forces on astronauts.
Shapiro and Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity will face each other in November after winning their uncontested primaries. Shapiro will go into the fall as a heavy favorite to win.
The governor also urged the crowd to help the party’s candidates win control of the Legislature for the first time in more than three decades.
“Give me a Democratic majority in the Senate and we will fully fund mass transit, we will build more housing, and we will codify abortion rights into state law,” Shapiro said.
For Shapiro, the election year is more than an opportunity to win a second term: It’s a chance show his battleground-state political strength should he decide to run for president in 2028.
The U.S. House campaigns will put Pennsylvania on the front lines of Democratic efforts to retake control of Congress and block the last two years of Trump’s agenda.
Contested primaries in swing seats
Shapiro and national Democrats promoted 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 had contested Democratic primaries, in addition to a wide-open contest in Philadelphia that will almost surely anoint the next seatholder. Those three swing districts are 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, teamed up to endorse the same candidate in each of the 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 — Stelson and Harvie — faced opponents on the left, while Brooks was in a four-way primary contest.
Stelson, a former local television anchor and personality, beat Justin Douglas, a progressive minister and a Dauphin County commissioner.
In Fitzpatrick’s district in suburban Philadelphia, Harvie, a Bucks County commissioner, defeated Lucia Simonelli, a first-time candidate and climate activist.
Brooks will challenge Mackenzie in an Allentown-area seat. He beat former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell, former Northampton County executive Lamont McClure and former legislative aide Carol Obando-Derstine.
In the fourth swing district, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti was unopposed for the Democratic nomination to take on GOP U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, who also was unopposed in the primary.
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 hoped they could 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, state Rep. Chris Rabb won the Democratic primary for a seat in Congress. Since no Republican sought that party’s nomination, Rabb is a shoo-in to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Dwight Evans.
Rabb was endorsed by progressive stalwarts U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and online streamer Hasan Piker and drew financial backing from the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Rabb bested Sharif Street, a state senator, former state party chairman and son of the city’s former two-term mayor, John F. Street, and Dr. Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon.
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Marc Levy, The Associated Press
