Lawrence County voters will flock to the polls on Tuesday to vote in Pennsylvania’s primary.
Pennsylvania is considered to be among the most high-stakes states in the fall presidential election. However, county voters see few races on their ballots.
PRESIDENT
It’s a rematch. Four years after winning Pennsylvania to send him to the White House, Joe Biden is the likely nominee on the Democratic ticket. Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips is also on the Democratic ballot, but he dropped from the race in March. Donald Trump, whose 2016 win in Pennsylvania vaulted him to the presidency, is on the Republican ballot with Nikki Haley. Haley suspended her campaign in March.
U.S. SENATE
Like the presidential race, the Senate race is also all but confirmed for the fall as three-term incumbent Democrat Bob Casey Jr. will take on Republican David McCormick. The two do not have a challenger in their races. Casey is leading in the latest Franklin & Marshall poll by seven points. McCormick lost a tight U.S. Senate primary battle to Dr. Mehmet Oz in the 2022 GOP primary.
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
16th Congressional District
Republican incumbent Mike Kelly of Butler is the lone Republican on the ballot, while Preston Nouri of Erie County is the challenger on the Democratic ballot. Kelly has served seven terms after being elected in 2010. The district covers all of Butler, Lawrence, Crawford and Mercer counties and part of Venango County.
STATE REPRESENTATIVE
8th District
Incumbent Republican Aaron Bernstine is the lone candidate in the 8th District, which covers Ellwood City and the southern part of Lawrence County and parts of Butler County. No Democrats are on the ballot.
9th District
Incumbent Republican Marla Brown is the lone candidate on the ballot for the 9th Legislative District, which covers most of Lawrence County. No Democrats are on the ballot.
Bill Messner, knocked from the ballot after receiving insufficient signatures, is campaigning as a write-in candidate.
STATE SENATOR
47th District
Incumbent Republican Elder Vogel Jr. is the lone candidate on either ballot. His district covers from New Beaver Borough to Ambridge in Allegheny County in the south and east to include Cranberry Township and part of the Interstate 79 corridor.
ATTORNEY GENERAL
Five Democrats and two Republicans are vying to be the commonwealth’s permanent top lawyer. Pennsylvania has had an acting AG since Josh Shapiro left to become governor.
Democrats
Jack Stollsteimer (Delaware County) is a previous assistant district attorney in Delaware County and an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Eugene DePasquale (Allegheny County) is a former state representative who served as auditor general from 2013 to 2021. Joe Khan (Bucks County) is a former Philadelphia assistant district attorney, assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and a Bucks County solicitor. Keir Bradford Grey (Philadelphia County) is a former chief public defender in Philadephia and heads the Defender Association of Philadelphia. Jared Solomon (Philadelphia County) has been a state representative since 2017 from northeast Philadelphia.
Republicans
Dave Sunday (York County) is the York County district attorney since 2017 and is the endorsed candidate by the Republican Party of Pennsylvania. Craig Williams (Delaware County) has represented Chester and Delaware counties in the state House since 2020. Before that, he was a Colorado federal prosecutor, a prosecutor for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and a utility lawyer.
AUDITOR GENERAL
It’s a two-way race in the Democratic party for the position that monitors how tax dollars are spent between Malcolm Kenyatta (Philadelphia County) and Mark Pinsley (Lehigh County). Kenyatta, one of the youngest serving state representatives when he was elected in 2018 at age 28, is endorsed by the state Democratic Party. Pinsley has been the Lehigh County controller since 2019 and is a former South Whitehall Township commissioner.
Incumbent Republican Tim DeFoor (Dauphin County) won election in 2020 as the first person of color to hold statewide office after serving as Dauphin County controller for five years.
STATE TREASURER
It’s another two-way race on the Democratic side against a first-term Republican incumbent. Ryan Bizzarro (Erie County) has been a state representative since 2013 and is the party’s policy chairman. He has the state party’s endorsem*nt. Erin McClelland (Allegheny County) is a substance abuse/mental health counselor who ran unsuccessful congressional western Pennsylvania campaigns in 2014 and 2016.
Republican Tracy Garrity (Bradford County) was elected in 2020 and is a former Army Reserve colonel.
DELEGATES
Five Democrats are running as delegates for the Democratic National Convention for the 16th District. They include Chelcie Alcorn, Lindsey J. Scott, J. Howard Thompson, Kevin E. Boozel and Gavin S. Griffin. All are committed to Joe Biden. Thompson is a Lawrence County resident.
Eleven Republicans are running as delegates for the Republican National Convention for the 16th District. They include Julie Swartfa*ger, Lynne Ryan, Jondavid Longo, Tim Kuzma, Michele Mustello, Thomas Eddy, Nathan Rybner, Corey V. Check, Mary Kaye Soriano, Fred W. Hensel and John Grenci. Ryan is the chair of the Lawrence County Republican Committee, while Longo is the mayor of Slippery Rock Borough in Butler County.
Voters may vote for up to three delegate candidates.
VOTING TRENDS
Lawrence County has 55,923 registered voters, breaking down to 28,142 Republicans, 20,866 Democrats and 4,852 with other registrations.
In the 2020 primary when a presidential race was last held, turnout was at 36.55 percent. That was also the first Pennsylvania election when mail-in ballots were allowed.
Turnout in 2016’s primary was 42.18 percent. Turnout in the 2020 general election, which also saw widespread mail-in ballot use, was 80.62 percent. According to the Lawrence County Voter Services Office, that’s the highest turnout for a presidential election since 1992 (85.20 percent) when Democrat Bill Clinton defeated one-term incumbent George H. W. Bush.
