{"id":196062,"date":"2026-05-18T23:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T23:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/196062\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T23:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T23:08:07","slug":"state-races-to-watch-in-pennsylvania-primary-harrisburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/196062\/","title":{"rendered":"State Races to Watch in Pennsylvania Primary | Harrisburg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tomorrow\u2019s primary winners will shape the races of November. Here are the hot seats and schisms of intrigue that political insiders are watching.<\/p>\n

Gubernatorial Write-In:<\/p>\n

Sen. Doug Mastriano told supporters earlier this year he would not run for governor. Some plan to vote for him anyways.<\/p>\n

The \u201cGrassroots Republican Write-In Campaign for Doug Mastriano for Governor\u201d Facebook page has 1.8k followers as of this afternoon.<\/p>\n

Stacy Garrity is the endorsed candidate for the state Republican party; the write in campaign is unexpected to surpass Garrity, still,<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s a surprising number of write ins for Mastriano, that could signal some weakness and some splintering in the Republican base. Which would make things extra hard for Stacy Garrity,\u201d said Berwood Yost, director at the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College.<\/p>\n

Congressional Vyying<\/p>\n

Federally, there are four congressional districts that Democratic strategists want to flip come November. Three of those areas have competitive, Democratic primaries tomorrrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cCandidate quality here is going to really matter,\u201d Yost said.<\/p>\n

Additionally<\/a>, there are Democratic primaries in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh districts. Two Republicans are running against each other in a northern Pittsburgh district, though analysts expect the seat to stay Democratic this November.<\/p>\n

State Senate Rumblings<\/p>\n

Several Republican state senators are fighting to keep their seats from newcomers. Reporting from Spotlight PA shows that the skill game industry is funding some of those newcomers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a fight in the state senate about whether or not we tax skill games in this state. So, there\u2019s reason to fund candidates who will vote certain ways on that issue,\u201d Yost said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Lisa Baker is in one of those contended races. In a recent interview, she encouraged voters to look at her record and experience. She said her opponent, Tyler Meyers, has campaign donations from a super PAC that the skill game\u2019s industry support. She also noted he has never held public office before.<\/p>\n

Meyers, when asked on the phone about his skill game donors, pointed out that Baker gets campaign funds from a gambling PAC. He said he has not spoken with skill game industry people and won\u2019t put \u201ca single dollar\u201d into skill games or any form of gambling.<\/p>\n

He chose to run after reviewing Baker\u2019s voting record on abortion and watching a documentary that linked Baker to an app in public schools that he said \u201cexposed 11-17 year olds to transgender ideology\u201d.<\/p>\n

Baker\u2019s campaign page highlights her work to end human trafficking and increase law enforcement support in her role as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n

Votes Count<\/p>\n

Even in districts without loud, competitive state races- votes matter. Local races and special ballot measure need residents to weigh in on their fate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether there\u2019s competition or not, voting should be a habit. And voting is a civic duty. And once you start voting and you vote regularly, you\u2019re going to vote in every election, hopefully for your whole life,\u201d said Al Schmidt, Secretary of State for Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tomorrow\u2019s primary winners will shape the races of November. Here are the hot seats and schisms of intrigue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2288,37,28,5929,30,29],"class_list":["post-196062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-bureau","tag-harrisburg","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-capitol","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}