On Primary Day in Pennsylvania, multiple races to watch

After months of on-campus voter registration, campaigning and opinionated Facebook posts, Tuesday is finally primary day in Pennsylvania. Polls will be open for voters from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. tonight.

Presidential Race:

For both Republicans and Democrats, there will be primaries in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Rhode Island on Tuesday as well. Democratic candidates have concentrated their efforts on Pennsylvania, while the Republicans have spread their campaigning throughout the other states.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who won the primary here in 2007 against then-Sen. Barack Obama, is heavily favored against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Clinton was at City Hall on Monday night for a “Get the Vote Out” event, while Sanders held a rally during the afternoon at Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center. Actor and avid Sanders supporter Justin Long made an appearance at Penn on Saturday, urging students to get the word out.

There is still some hope for those “feeling the Bern,” but Sanders will need some unlikely upsets in order to catch up with Clinton’s wide delegate lead. Sanders is trailing Clinton by 752 delegates right now according to Politico.

On the other side of the aisle, 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump is expecting a victory in Pennsylvania. On Monday, Trump spoke at West Chester University, about 40 minutes from Philadelphia.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich announced on Sunday a plan to “team-up” to beat Trump in primaries early next month. Cruz is placing his focus on campaigning in Indiana, while Kasich is working to garner enough support in Oregon and New Mexico to beat Trump, who is currently the frontrunner.

Trump only needs 392 of the remaining 733 delegates to automatically qualify as the Republican nominee. Cruz and Kasich, who are both mathematically incapable of reaching the required majority, are working to at least deny Trump the nomination.

State Races:

Also on the ballot tomorrow is a heated Democratic senatorial primary between candidates Joe Sestak, Katie McGinty and John Fetterman. The race has received national press in recent weeks due to the Democratic Party’s outward support of McGinty, who has received praise from President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, at the expense of Sestak. Penn Democrats also endorsed McGinty.

A former Navy admiral, Sestak served in Congress from 2007-11 and won the Democratic senatorial nomination in 2010, where he lost to Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

If Sestak wins the primary, he will face Toomey in a rematch. A Harper’s poll of likely Democratic voters gave McGinty a six-point advantage over Sestak, the first time polling has favored her in the race. Fetterman, the mayor of Braddock, Pa., trails farther behind.

The state attorney general seat is also up for grabs this year. Current Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who was indicted last year on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury, will not seek reelection. Five candidates, three Republicans and two Democrats, will compete to replace her.

Local Races:

A final competitive race is taking place in the 2nd Congressional District, where Penn is located. Democratic incumbent Rep. Chaka Fattah, a 1986 Fels Institute of Government graduate, is running against three other candidates: Dan Muroff, Brian Gordon and Dwight Evans.

Fattah was indicted last summer on a slew of charges relating to racketeering conspiracy, and although he has an upcoming criminal trial, he is still running for reelection. He was accused of obtaining an illegal $1 million loan to run for mayor in 2007. He then allegedly used federal and charitable funds to repay the debt, and tried to hide this information by submitting false billing statements.

Despite his legal troubles, Fattah still received an endorsement from the city Democratic Party.

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