Today, April 23, 2024, is PA’s primary election.
While you certainly already know who’s running for president in your party, you may not know who’s running to represent you on state and local levels, and local and regional votes you cast have a much greater influence on your day-to-day life than whoever is occupying the White House.
The arguably most important race of the primary is for PA Attorney General, the highest ranking law enforcement officer in the state — also the person who will lead in the case of a PA post-election insurrection, and who will protect our rights in the event of federal overreach in the next administration. (Read more about why this matters.)
This year, Philadelphia voters are also deciding on state representatives and senators, and legal protections for RCOs against developers. Also at stake: The balance of power in the General Assembly in Harrisburg, where Democrats currently have a one-vote majority — and one Northeast Philadelphia representative is currently a fugitive from the law.
The City’s complete list of candidates on the ballot is here. See below for more about who’s running.
- PA ATTORNEY GENERAL
- AUDITOR GENERAL
- TREASURER
- U.S. SENATE
- U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
- PHILADELPHIA DELEGATES TO THE STATE SENATE
- PA GENERAL ASSEMBLY REPRESENTATIVES
- BALLOT MEASURES
PA ATTORNEY GENERAL
Former PA Attorney General (and later, Governor) Tom Corbett, describes the AG’s job this way: “You collect by suit and otherwise all debts, taxes and accounts due to the commonwealth, represent the commonwealth and law agencies in any action brought by or against the commonwealth, you administer the provisions relating to consumer protection and antitrust laws. That’s just a summary. There’s a lot more beyond that.”
“A lot more” includes, as The Citizen’s Larry Platt notes, protecting what we hold dear: “When one of the (gulp) nation’s leading presidential candidates has talked about terminating the Constitution, using the Justice Department to punish his political opponents, and deploying U.S. troops on domestic soil, who will be standing in the way of such Putinism? Who, in other words, will stand for the Rule of Law? Elected AGs, that’s who.”