4/23 Primary Preview
Pennsylvania
PA-03 (West Philadelphia)
Dwight Evans (i) vs. Tracey Gordon
Result: Evans 87.7%, Gordon 12.3% | Evans wins
Tracey Gordon served a tumultuous single term as Philadelphia’s Register of Wills after unseating Ronald Donatucci in 2019. As Register of Wills, she came under fire for inappropriately using her office for personal and political gain, ultimately losing her first reelection bid in the Democratic primary last year and facing a wave of lawsuits from employees who say they were fired for not supporting Gordon’s ill-fated reelection campaign. Running for Congress isn’t a logical next step from there, but it’s exactly what Gordon chose to do. US Rep. Dwight Evans, a quiet Democratic backbencher, is a heavy favorite for renomination. Even the positive bit of media attention Gordon has received for this campaign was written to ask the question “why is she running for Congress?”
PA-12 (Pittsburgh and suburbs)
Summer Lee (i) vs. Bhavini Patel
Result: Lee 60.6%, Patel 39.4% | Lee wins
Perhaps the most exciting election last cycle was Summer Lee’s. We watched her begin her political career as a freshly elected DSA-affiliated state house member, grow her influence and organizing capabilities rapidly over the course of four years, and then run for an open Congressional seat as a unapologetic progressive fully possessed of the moral clarity necessary to stand apart from the Democratic party line when it was just to do so. She faced five million dollars in outside spending from AIPAC, funding a gutter-level smear campaign that her opponent Steve Irwin was all too happy to join in with. Lee won that election by fractions of a percentage point, a result that wasn’t clear until the early hours of the morning.
This year has been less exciting for her, and thank god for that. AIPAC, by all indications, was gearing up for an expensive and bloody rematch, but eventually lost their nerve and decided to stay out. You can take your pick as to the primary reason why: incumbency advantages, their attacks being less potent the second time around, the changing of the guard in local party infrastructure, lack of confidence in Lee challenger and Edgewood Borough Councilmember Bhavini Patel, and, of course, the changing tides of public opinion on Israel and Palestine.
But just because AIPAC gave up doesn’t meant Patel, or the larger right-wing anti-Squad money printer, did. Patel has been tirelessly campaigning, and going after Lee with every chance she’s gotten. More recently she’s been suggesting that voting for Summer Lee will endanger Biden’s reelection chances. You’d almost wonder if Patel feels personally wounded by Lee, because rarely do you see a candidate opt against defining herself at all beyond the ways she isn’t her opponent. The entire campaign is a howl of rage against progressives in general and Lee in particular in a way that has to be counterproductive to the aim of actually getting elected.
Besides Patel herself, there are a few powerful people unwilling to give up on the dream of defeating Summer Lee. The building trades unions are still furious about the Allegheny County establishment utterly crumbling in under a decade, and are seemingly endorsing against Lee out of pure spite. Additionally, Pennsylvania’s richest man Jeffrey Yass is throwing some pocket change Lee’s way, contributing the better part of a million dollars towards an ad campaign attacking her. The people fighting for Lee are simply stronger and more numerous: most other unions, the Working Families Party, Justice Democrats, Hakeem Jeffries, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have all meaningfully rallied to boost Lee.
This election is going to be the first test of the politics around the Squad and Israel, a topic that will be rearing its head in at least another three high-profile contests this year. We’re not going to try to manage expectations—Lee should win this contest, and she should do so by a comfortable margin. That doesn’t make the outcome uninteresting or unimportant: for the first time this cycle, a well-financed candidate is attempting to turn the election into a referendum on Israel and Squad politics in general, and we’re about to see what that amounts to.
HD-10 (West Philadelphia)
Amen Brown (i) vs. Sajda Blackwell vs. Cass Green
Result: Brown 40.2%, Green 39.6%, Blackwell 20.1% | Brown wins
State Rep. Amen Brown has stepped on a lot of toes in his two terms representing West Philadelphia in the state House. Whether the last straw was his failed push to expand mandatory minimums, or the extensive support he received from GOP billionaire Jeff Yass as a reward for his conservative streak and charter school support, or his disastrous mayoral campaign, much of Philadelphia’s political scene has run out of patience with Brown. Cass Green, a progressive activist, nearly beat Brown in 2022; with 2023’s mayoral race in the rearview mirror and progressive incumbents looking quite safe, electing Green is now a primary focus of Philly progressives and Philly DSA. Green’s not the only returning Brown challenger who’s picked up more support since last time, though—Sajda Blackwell, the police union choice from 2022, has the Philadelphia Inquirer and Sheriff Rochelle Bilal backing her second run against Brown. Most Philly politicians, labor unions, and state-level Democrats are sticking with Brown still, but both of his challengers have noteworthy support.
HD-32 (Eastern Pittsburgh suburbs)
Joe McAndrew (i) vs. Pauline Calabrese
Result: McAndrew 70.6%, Calabrese 29.4% | McAndrew wins
After incumbent Tony DeLuca died in office shortly before the 2022 elections, the local Democratic Party needed to choose among a large list of potential candidates to be their nominee for the special election. In the final round of ranked-choice voting, they selected young political staffer Joe McAndrew over Penn Hills Mayor Pauline Calabrese, all but ensuring McAndrew nearly a full term in the house. Calabrese evidently believes the voters wouldn’t agree with the choice party delegates made, and is trying again in this primary. While we appreciate the spirit, her odds in the nominee selection were hindered by her past dalliance with anti-abortion politics—she was endorsed by Life PAC, a southwest Pennsylvania anti-abortion group twice, in 2015 and 2017—and the same thing is happening this time around. While Calabrese now claims she supports reproductive rights (and is even attacking McAndrew on the issue) the impression that she won’t be a reliable pro-choice vote is compounded by her attempt to bear-hug the image of DeLuca, a man who at best had a mixed voting record on abortion.
HD-34 (Eastern Pittsburgh and suburbs)
Abigail Salisbury (i) vs. Ashley Comans
Result: Salisbury 63.0%, Comans 37.0% | Salisbury wins
When Summer Lee resigned this seat to take her current congressional seat, the Allegheny County Democratic Committee got to pick a replacement. They chose Abigail Salisbury, who had unsuccessfully challenged Lee from the right with the ACDC’s support in 2022, so this primary was really inevitably going to become a proxy war between the ACDC and Lee’s progressive faction. Lee, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, County Executive Sara Innamorato, and the constellation of unions and nonprofits that align with progressives in Pittsburgh are behind Wilkinsburg school board member Ashley Comans, while the local and statewide establishments are backing the incumbent to the hilt. This is one of the most expensive state House primaries in Pennsylvania this cycle, and thanks to generous donations from the Working Families Party and PA United, Comans has been able to keep up with and even outraise Salisbury.
HD-38 (Southeast Pittsburgh suburbs)
John Inglis vs. A.J. Olasz vs. Victoria Schmotzer
Result: Inglis 34.5%, Schmotzer 34.1%, Olasz 31.3% | Inglis wins
This district is as close as you’re going to get to the Pittsburgh of years past: the economy runs on steel and politics runs on labor unions. That makes teacher and West Mifflin Borough Councilmember John Inglis, backed by organized labor in the county, a strong favorite. He’s also supported by, and campaigning with, the district’s outgoing incumbent, Nick Pisciottano, who happens to be his cousin. Nepotism or not, Inglis seems like he’ll be a good representative, or at least good by the standards of this district, and he even has endorsements from progressive state legislators Sen. Lindsey Williams and Rep. Jessica Benham.
Voters wanting a candidate from outside the region’s political families will be out of luck, however: the other two candidates are the grandson of a previous representative of the district, and the granddaughter of a former Oakmont mayor. AJ Olasz, in particular, really just wants voters to know that he’s part of the Olasz family, and specifically the grandson of former state Rep. Richard Olasz, to an extent that quickly gets pathetic. He announced his campaign with a press release entitled “grandson of former state rep announces campaign”, which also unveiled his campaign slogan “generations of service”. Currently, his website’s “About” page begins with a paragraph about members of his family and what they were elected to. Richard Olasz’s Grandson is the most conservative candidate in the election, railing against jobs lost to green energy initiatives, though Richard Olasz’s Grandson doesn’t share the anti-abortion politics of his grandfather, who was Richard Olasz, in case you hadn’t heard.
Finally, Victoria Schmotzer is a HR worker at the Small Business Association who understands that she lacks the establishment connections that John Inglis and Rcihard Olasz’s Grandson have, and is trying to differentiate herself by leading with a call for term limits.
HD-103 (Harrisburg and suburbs)
Nate Davidson vs. Mercedes Evans vs. Laura Harding vs. Jesse Monoski vs. Tina Nixon
Result: Davidson 29.7%, Evans 22.9%, Nixon 22.5%, Monoski 18.1%, Harding 6.8% | Davidson wins
With longtime incumbent Patty Kim running for the state Senate, a five-way race has broken out. Kim herself favors state House staffer Tina Nixon, though House Democratic Caucus staffer Nate Davidson seems to have more of the state establishment in his corner. Government consultant and veteran Laura Harding is the only candidate attempting running as a progressive, both in explicitly branding herself as such, and in a few policy areas, like opposing cash bail or bothering to talk about public transit.
The remaining two candidates are elected officials: Camp Hill Councilmember Mercedes Evans and Lemoyne Councilmember Jesse Monoski. Both are hard to judge—the former because she has a habit of saying not much at all about where she stands on issues, and the latter because of conflicting signals: he’s endorsed by the state nurses’s union, normally a very good sign, but also wants to be a voice for both people and businesses in the legislature, which is a bad one that we may be reading too much into.
HD-159 (Chester, Marcus Hook, Upper Chichester)
Carol Kazeem (i) vs. Darren A. Laws Sr.
Result: Kazeem 77.1%, Laws 22.9% | Kazeem wins
Two years after unseating state Rep. Brian Kirkland, progressive Carol Kazeem looks like a safe bet for reelection over community activist Darren Laws, whose campaign appears to consist of an Instagram page. Brian Kirkland’s father and political patron Thaddeus Kirkland was defeated for reelection as mayor of Chester last year.
HD-172 (Northeast Philadelphia)
Kevin Boyle (i) vs. Sean Dougherty
Result: Dougherty 72.9%, Boyle 27.1% | Dougherty wins
State Rep. Kevin Boyle is, unfortunately, dealing with mental health challenges that make it difficult for him to carry out his job responsibilities. Until yesterday, he faced an arrest warrant for violating a protective order, which led state House Democrats to begin considering a new rules package that would allow them to expel him. State House Democrats have directed tens of thousands of dollars in support to Sean Dougherty after a video of Boyle having an outburst at a bar went mildly viral in Pennsylvania political circles in February, which prompted House Democrats to restrict Boyle’s security access to the state capitol and strip him of a committee assignment. (Dougherty, a 30-year-old public defender, is also the son of state Supreme Court Justice Kevin Dougherty—and the nephew of notorious union leader John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty, who is currently on trial in his third federal corruption case.) In recent years, as Northeast Philadelphia’s white neighborhoods have trended right, this district has become a tad swingy, and House Democrats understandably don’t want to have to count on Boyle as they defend their one-vote majority in November.
HD-181 (North central Philadelphia)
Malcolm Kenyatta (i) vs. NaDerah Griffin vs. Lewis Nash Sr.
Result: Kenyatta 74.1%, Nash 16.8%, Griffin 9.1% | Kenyatta wins
State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta is on the ballot twice for the second cycle in a row. In 2022, Kenyatta unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for US Senate while also seeking reelection as a fallback; this year, reelection is his backup plan in case he falls short in his bid for Auditor General. He faces only minor opposition from anti-LGBTQ Democratic ward leader and pastor Lewis Nash Sr. and local activist NaDerah Griffin.
HD-188 (West Philadelphia)
Rick Krajewski (i) vs. Tony Dphax King
Result: Krajewski 83.6%, King 16.4% | Krajewski wins
State Rep. Rick Krajewski, a democratic socialist, unseated an incumbent in 2020, and easily turned back a challenger supported by the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee in 2022. In his second reelection it looks like the establishment’s old guard have given up on Krajewski, because Tony Dphax King does not pose a serious threat.
HD-190 (West Philadelphia and North Philadelphia)
G. Roni Green (i) vs. James Jackson
Result: Green 67.3%, Jackson 32.7% | Green wins
State Rep. Roni Green is likely safe from ghost candidate James Jackson, who has no web presence and has filed no campaign finance reports.