Primary Election

Republican and Democratic voters are heading to the polls today to select their champions for November's general election, and Mark Wolosik, who heads Allegheny County's elections department, is expecting light turnout for today's primary. 

"We're predicting about 20 percent on both sides -- 20 percent Democratic and 20 percent Republican registered voters," he says.

Tuesday's primary elections will begin to settle swing state Pennsylvania's chaotic congressional landscape after a court fight ended with redrawn districts just three months ago.

Pennsylvania primary voters will also decide the fate of President Donald Trump's pick for U.S. Senate. Idaho voters are set to pick their Republican gubernatorial nominee, while heavily Republican Nebraska and Democratic-leaning Oregon are also holding primaries Tuesday.

A look at some of the key races:

PENNSYLVANIA SCRAMBLE

Check in throughout the day for 90.5 WESA's continuous coverage of the Primary Election. 

Of all the crowded races in Tuesday's primary election, perhaps none is odder than the one for lieutenant governor.

Usually, a sitting LG is in a pretty safe spot once primaries roll around.

But no less than four Democratic challengers are giving incumbent Mike Stack a run for his money.

For Stack, a former Democratic Senator from Philadelphia, the trouble seemed to really start with a press conference.

This year's legislative races in Pennsylvania have drawn extremely high levels of interest, with reports of activists swamping normally quiet organizational meetings and an unusually large number of candidates making it onto the ballot.

Days before Pennsylvania’s primary election, about 25 Democrats gathered for a meeting a few blocks away from the border of two recently reshaped congressional districts in North Philadelphia.

On a table with campaign literature, flyers that said, “re-elect Congressman Dwight Evans” were neatly tucked away and replaced with others that support Congressman Brendan Boyle.

Call it a tale of two Costas.

In campaign-season mailers being sent to Democratic voters in the 21st state House district, state Rep. Dom Costa boasts of his success at “Moving Pittsburgh Forward.” 

With less than a week before the primary elections, GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner is voicing his support for a restrictive abortion bill.

The stance is in line with a recurring theme in the race—the York County Senator’s apparent battle with rival Paul Mango over who is farther right politically.

It's a Tuesday evening in early May, and an elaborately-decorated lobby in Malvern is swarming with Republicans.

A number are state officials, or officers for the Pennsylvania GOP. Many more are members of the Chester County Republican Party--the group behind this particular dinner.

But the keynote speaker, and the name on most of the signs, banners, and lapel buttons, is a guy who still describes himself as a political outsider, even after four years in the state Senate.

A group that's plunging money into a Republican congressional primary contest in southwestern Pennsylvania is getting most of it from the campaign account of the now-resigned U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy.

Federal Election Commission reports show the group Conservatives for PA is paying for TV and radio ads and direct mail to help state Sen. Guy Reschenthaler in his 14th Congressional District primary race against state Rep. Rick Saccone.

If he wins the race for Pennsylvania governor, Scott Wagner would become the state's only chief executive in at least a half-century who took office with a deep financial interest in a business heavily regulated by the state.

Wagner, 63, the Republican Party's endorsed candidate to take on Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in November, maintains he will be focused strictly on a business-friendly platform of cutting spending and regulations, not helping the York County-based waste hauler he owns.

George Scott got the inevitable question a half-hour into a meet-the-candidate house party in the rolling hills of south-central Pennsylvania: How will you inspire all those people in the congressional district who put up Donald Trump signs in 2016?

With three weeks left before the primary election, the three Republicans seeking the party's nomination to challenge Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in November are set to take debate questions on live television.

Wednesday night's debate between commercial litigation attorney Laura Ellsworth, ex-health care systems consultant Paul Mango and state Sen. Scott Wagner will be aired live by stations in Harrisburg, Erie, Scranton and Johnstown.

Pennsylvania's incumbent governor raised nearly $5 million for his re-election during the first three months of the year, leaving him with more than $14.7 million in the bank for the election that's now seven months away.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's campaign said Monday he took in $4.96 million between Jan. 1 and March 26.

His campaign says 91 percent of his donations were of $250 or less, and nine out of 10 donors live in Pennsylvania.

Wolf spent more than $32 million, including about $10 million of his own money, in winning the governorship in 2014.

From the old steel communities around Pittsburgh to the lakefront communities of Chicagoland, Republicans are facing an increasingly clear reality: They've got trouble in the suburbs.

Candidates are submitting petition paperwork ahead of the deadline to get on Pennsylvania's congressional primary election ballots.

More than 20 candidates had filed by mid-day Monday, according to state elections bureau data. The deadline to submit at least 1,000 voter signatures to get on the May 15 primary ballot is Tuesday.